I *love* a peek at a secret world, and Walder offers fascinating glimpses of her life as a CIA and an FBI agent, including training details, political machinations, significant and rankling discrimination, and her own glowing pride in doing her job well and protecting others from danger—even when anyone without security clearance remained necessarily ignorant of the invaluable nature of the work and the imminent risks avoided. Her evolution into her present-day self and current profession was satisfying to witness as well.

Printing the redactions as strikethrough text of the same length as what was omitted jarred me at first, and I wondered about this approach, but as the book went on, this method made sense and worked for me.

I would’ve liked this to be twice as long with even more more more detail!

St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley provided me with an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tend to only read autobiographies featuring women in “nonconventional” hobbies or careers ("Jet Girl", "Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube", "What Happened"), as their struggles and successes are either personally inspiring or indicative that, as a society, we still have a ways to go regarding equality. The Unexpected Spy was no different. For someone who, to be honest, doesn’t have a great deal of interest in 9/11 and its aftermath (I’m more concerned with the rise of domestic terrorists - lone shooters and incel attacks), this book was still enthralling and fascinating.

The writing is easy to follow, engaging, and doesn’t get bogged down on details. We are given enough childhood backstory on Tracy that we understand her. She seems like a driven, focused woman who is also very kind and compassionate. A normal person who happened to land a job that suited her strengths.

As a Canadian myself, the “America, f*ck yeah!” statements peppered throughout were a little eye-rolling, but the (sometimes) hyperbolic patriotism was balanced with her critical take on the actions of her government and an open-minded approach to other countries. She clearly was not blinded by her devotion to her country, which was nice to see. I enjoyed that she briefly mentions how her career impacted her social life, but that wasn’t a focus of the story. This is a book about a woman doing her job, not balancing her career with her home life.

Yet, there are still some very poignant sections outlining the sexism she encountered in her role not only as a CIA agent but in the FBI. These moments were less frustrating when she was in the CIA and downright maddening when she discusses the FBI. Was I surprised this happened to her? No. Which is why I found those sections so important. Sexism and misogyny are still problems we need to deal with as a society, and I can only hope stories like these shed light on what needs to change.

In truth, this was likely not a book I would have picked up if the publisher had not offered me an early read, but I’m glad they did!

I stayed up late the first night reading this, until I just couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer. I might have read it right through if I hadn’t been so tired from just inhaling another book before this one. A really good read about a young lady spy for the CIA who goes after bad guy terrorists after 9/11. She later changes jobs to work for the FBI. I found it a good book and hope it might give some young women different goals for the future about making a difference. I found this to be another book I got right through, as I enjoyed it so much and recommend if you like this type of subject. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, authors Tracy Walder & Jessica Anya Blau, and the publisher.

The Unexpected Spy is an enthralling read. Walder grew up in SoCal and was recruited by the CIA while still in college. She also worked for the FBI and currently teaches in Texas. Being in the history profession myself, I related to her using her previous experiences to instruct her students on public policy and world history. Slander has definitely led an exciting life as both a foreign and domestic agent.

This was an interesting book, at times it was really good.
Other times I thought it was a bit wordy. I like the fact that the author was intent on girl power and teaching girls they can be and do whatever they want. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

Ms. Walder tells about her distinctive experiences working at both the CIA and the FBI. The CIA position was her first post-graduate job. She was working at the CIA during 9-11. Ms. Walder provides a unique perspective on her work and her life surrounding her secretive jobs.

Recommended for academic libraries, public libraries, and book clubs.

What a fascinating read. This book give you a look into the CIA and FBI that is eye opening. I appreciated so much about this book. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Thanks to netgalley, the authors and the publisher for the copy I received.

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

This is a fantastic book! So interesting to read about the life as an Agent in both the CIA and the FBI and I look forward to seeing in on the tv screen :)

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this review copy!

This is the story of how a sorority girl who was bullied at school found her calling working for the CIA. At a job fair at college, the author filled out a job application on a whim…and the rest is history. She started her job immediately after she graduated.

Shortly after starting work, Walder was promoted to The Vault, under kindly Director Tenet, who made her feel like a part of the team. She was respected by the other team members and everyone worked together well, thanks to Tenet. He was always doing thoughtful things, such as bringing Thanksgiving dinner to the Vault’s hardworking members.

A few months later, she was moved to Counterterrorism to work under Graham Andersson. This continued to bolster her confidence and erase the “loser” mindset she had, because she constantly received compliments and encouragement from her superiors. Some of the missions she worked on dealt with poison and other weapons of mass destruction. Despite being an introvert, she gave apresentation on a poisoning plot she and two other coworkers discovered. Due to their hard work, the people of interest were captured, and the poisoning plot was exposed and neutralized. The book continues with more stories like this, including some that highlight intelligence operatives that don’t work on Sunday, despite the terrorists that lurk nearby.

Walder remains positive, despite being minimalized by the men in other cultures. About 60% of the way through she meets some male counterparts after a bombing in Africa, and they are less than thrilled to be working with her. She remains professional and focused on the task at hand. This strength is one of her main characteristics – it shines through on almost every page. Her writing is full of her eagerness to fight the terrorists before they get a chance to perform their insidious tasks. She also writes about her feelings of personal failure regarding the March 11, 2004 bombing in Madrid. She wondered what scrap of information she had missed and felt personally responsible for all those dead and wounded. It was this final straw that cause her to fill out an application for the FBI and send it in. They accepted her immediately, and so Walder embarked on a new career. However, for the first time in her professional career she felt bullied during her training at Quantico. She kept moving forward and never let the constant criticism get her down – another display of her incredible mental strength.

Unfortunately, the FBI’s mentality was to pair her up with a more experienced partner and marginalize her, never making her the lead when they picked up criminals. She learned that she wasn’t the only female being discriminated against, but she kept going, hoping things would change. It didn’t, and she quit the FBI after working there only 15 months. Currently she is a history teacher at an all-girls school, her mission empowering and educating girls against the bullies and terrorists of the world. Walder puts as much determination into her teaching as she did in her career, and that is refreshing. She is a role model who still cares about eliminating hatred, embracing all walks of life, and giving girls their voice. I am glad that she chose to write her story to illuminate these causes! Her voice is clear and strong, the writing style will pull you in and make you laugh at times, while other times you will be incredulous, such as when you read about the mistreatment the FBI puts forth. It is also very interesting to be “behind the scenes” at the CIA, as much as they would allow. This unforgettable book would be great for any college age girl to read, for it may spark interest in a career such as Walder’s. Her experiences are powerful and empowering.

This book is an education in foreign policy that current day politicians need to read! I found it enlightening and scary. I would love to read the parts that are blacked out but admire the author for protecting US secrets and resources. this is a must read for anyone who wants to know how the CIA andFBI operate.

This was the unexpected memoir for me because it popped up as an invitation in my email box and I didn't need to be asked twice! The book was very short (about 200 pages) which I normally love, but frankly I could have stood to have read a lot more of this. The author doesn't waste words or pages, and after a very brief mention of her childhood and college, both of which are relevant to things that occur later, we get right into her recruitment at the CIA, the work that she did, and then a switch to the FBI, which I did not expect but which I think I found even more interesting than the CIA, which had been engaging aplenty.

Obviously a lot of this is about the CIA, so the details she gives are naturally censored in parts. This was my only problem with this book - not that things were censored, but that the author had chosen to leave the expurgated portions (which were not that many) in the text, but as a series (in my copy) of tilde marks, rather than write around the topic. For example, I read at one point, "I'd been moved into what was then a deeply classified operation within the CIA, the ~~~~~~~~ Program." I didn't get why she hadn't simply changed it to say something like "I'd been moved into what was then a deeply classified program." At another point I read, "if we ever were to ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, that action would never be taken without thorough analysis." That could easily have been rendered as something like "any action on something like that would never be taken without thorough analysis." The tildes were most annoying when they ran on for many lines - twelve or nineteen on a couple of occasions. But as I said, it wasn't that often and it wasn't a book-killer for me.

The author was born with what's called 'floppy baby syndrome' or more professionally known as hypotonia, in which the body's muscles are less than sturdy, but she overcame that. I'd never even heard of it until I read this book. Here it stands as an foreshadowing of some things the author had to overcome in her career. This led to some bullying in school, then on to her being a blonde Delta Gamma sorority girl and hardly - to some people's narrow minds - the kind of person who would end up in the CIA! But she did, and started out life eying satellite photographs and analyzing them as an aid to tracking terrorists. It reminded me of a scene from that Harrison Ford Tom Clancy thriller Patriot Games in which they were similarly examining photographs to try and identify people at a camp.

Apparently the CIA has a crazy course in vehicular pursuit, called Crash and Bang, where they get to drive these old beat-up cars and have to try to run the opponent off the road. The course ends with them deliberately crashing into a cement wall just so they know how it feels, which seems a bit extreme to me, but I guess it's better to be prepared. I assume it's a relatively low speed crash, but they were told if they didn't hit hard enough to render the vehicle un-drivable, they'd have to do it again!

I got to read about how it was in the CIA right after 9/11, when people like George Bush, as well as Condoleezza Rice, and Dick Cheney would come in unexpectedly, asking rather desperately if the operatives had managed to find a link between this guy Zarqawi, who they knew was into making chemical weapons, and Saddam Hussein, and each time the CIA would report in the negative. At one point the administration learned that Zarqawi had been to Baghdad for surgery, so they used that as the link, changed the heading on the information this author supplied them, and went on national news claiming a link! That news meant that Zarqawi went underground and they lost track of him for a while. It also meant they had manufactured a 'justification' for invading Iraq. It was disturbing to read things like this, it really was. The book was an eye-opener in many regards.

After some time with the CIA, the author wanted a change of pace and applied to the FBI where she was accepted for training. I'm not sure I'd personally consider that a change of pace, but each to their own! At Quantico though, unlike in the CIA, it seemed like there was an institutional program of resentment and bullying of females, and particularly of one who 'claimed' to have worked in the CIA. The three trainers seemed intent upon employing the same genderist attitude toward her from day one, despite one of the trainers being a woman. Their behavior was appalling.

The book is replete with anecdotes and interesting information not about the details of the work (where permissible!), but about the way the work is done and how hard these people strived to keep a country safe - and how awful it is when they feel like they have failed, either because they did not reach the right conclusions in time or because they did, but those who could act on the information would not listen to the experts who were telling them there was a threat. It made fascinating reading and I commend it whole-heartedly.

I received an ARC in exchange for honest review. I really enjoyed this "insiders look" into life as a CIA and FBI agent - particularly from the perspective of a woman. I didn't enjoy the way the author left out many parts of the narrative with blacked out text - I understood the need, but felt the story would have followed better if those parts had just been eliminated all together.

The book was well written and provided a chronological look at the varied careers of the author, mostly focusing on her time in the CIA. Unfortunately some of the material was redacted by the CIA and a few chronologies are missing information to help the reader glean a thorough understanding of the described events. Interesting career experiences for sure.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review.

Tracy Walder shares her story of beginning a career in the CIA at a very young age and quickly understanding how she can not only make an impact on the world, but also be a strong woman in many difficult environments. Her memoir also covers her shift to the FBI and the additional challenges she had to overcome. I thought it was interesting to learn about the training employees go through in both of these areas, but also frustrating to hear how women can so easily be belittled because of their gender. However, it was impressive to hear of Tracy's success at such a young age, and I applaud all of the work she continues to do to inspire women.

Tracey Walder shares her journey in this engaging personal story. On the surface, she shares her path from California girl, to sorority college woman, to her service with the CIA and FBI. She also goes deeper into her life, and exposes her feelings, dreams, and challenges. At time troubling, but always uplifting, her story will resonate with all readers seeking to learn more about modern global problems.

Tracey majored in history and had developed a passion for current affairs. Near the end of college, she applied for a position with the CIA. She was a new recruit on September 11, 2001 and was plunged into the business of hunting down terrorists and stopping dangerous chemical and poison attacks. Much of her job involved satellite surveillance. She tells of her travels through Europe and the Middle East and the horror that she experienced. Parts of her story are redacted, for security purposes.

Next, Tracey joined the FBI, to continue her desire to make the world and America safer, while remaining closer to home. Unfortunately, dealing with the FBI bureaucracy seemed to be more troubling than handling criminals. This is the second book I have read recently that tells how dedicated women were treated poorly by government offices.

I learned from this factually detailed memoir- about the commitment of Tracey and all the others who work to protect our freedoms, and I recommend it as a thoughtful story for our times.

Thank you Netgalley, authors Tracy Walder and Jessica Anya Blau and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. This is my honest review.

This is an excellent book - and the storyline would never be accepted if it were fiction!
I found it especially interesting to read about what was going on in the CIA "behind closed doors" in the aftermath of 9/11

It was somewhat frustrating to read round the redacted parts & I think I'd have preferred some rewrites or "Mr X" /"Middle East Location I will call City B" but I can understand why the author chose to do this - it added authenticity for her.

It was interesting to learn about her teenage years & the type of person she was, and very frustrating to read about the blatent sexism and mysogeny she encoutered during her working life, but so much more prevalently when she left the CIA to join FBI

I am not a US citizen, but I could still relate to this book - I am sure US Citizens would bring a slightly different set of experiences to it but I think it resonates with many in the Western World. It definitely makes you look at the CIA/FBI/Secret Sevrices/Inteligence agencies etc in a differnet light

Thank you for sharing your story Tracy ...

Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book free via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

This was a great book. It was a bit frustrating at times work the redacted parts. I felt like the paragraphs could have been deleted and not missed anything. I really related to the author and her struggles. It was inspiring to see how far she came. I liked the reasoning and explanations rather than focusing on dangerous missions. It's interesting to look back through the lens of history and see how far we have (and haven't) come. The epilogue was awesome and great to see how she circled back around to her original goal

If this book had been a fiction novel, it would be criticized for being too preposterous. As an autobiography, it was an inspiring, upsetting, and very interesting book.

A true page turner Tracy Walker went right from college to the CIA her adventures as an agent her view of historic moments and to make this book even more involving she shares her personal life.For me I got caught up in her life and could not put it down.#netgalley#st.martinspress

Wow I loved this. I expected your run-of-the-mill military autobiography but it was extremely well-written and paced perfectly. I was interested the entire time and got the perfect mixture of experience Tracy's work, personal life, home life, and life around her job. I thoroughly enjoyed this and can't wait to share it and eventually buy a physical copy for myself!