Publishers Weekly
★ 07/15/2019
Fox delivers a gripping memoir about the near decade she spent working for the CIA to help stop terrorism. The 2002 kidnapping and beheading by extremists of her writing mentor, journalist Daniel Pearl, compelled Fox to apply to the master’s program in conflict and terrorism at Georgetown University. Fox’s thesis work caught the attention of a CIA official in residence at the school, and she enthrallingly discusses joining the CIA at 22 and then being selected to be part of the CIA’s elite Clandestine Service, where her duties included mapping the connections between al Qaeda lieutenants. In her strange new world, every colleague has a bogus identity, and Fox’s description of her wedding day is surreal: “I walk down the aisle, past work friends whose real names I’ll never know,” she writes. Fox’s work to prevent terror attacks—some of which she conducted while pregnant—involved tracking arms deals and took her to places like Tunisia, where she connected with a Hungarian arms dealer she later recruited for the CIA, and to Pakistan, where she convinced militants not to go through with a planned bombing. Fox’s CIA life ended after the birth of her daughter, who inspired her to shed her “mask” and work publicly for peace as a community builder. Fox masterfully conveys the exhilaration and loneliness of life undercover, and her memoir reads like a great espionage novel. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
One of People Magazine's Best Books of Fall 2019
“Gripping…reads like a true-life thriller.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Genius… Fascinating…along with the cloak-and-dagger action, Fox writes movingly of trying to reconcile a career in espionage with family life… A look inside the CIA that the agency isn’t ready for you to see… a great read.”
—Washington Post
“Gripping…Life Undercover sets aside high-octane street chases and gunfights for an equally riveting narrative of compassion, revealing that the path to peace is through understanding the common humanity in us all.”
—Paste Magazine
"A riveting account of the decade the author spent risking her life in the CIA’s most clandestine unit."
—People
"a timely, compelling story. As fellow citizens, we’d all do well to better understand what that vital work entails."
—LA Times
"Gripping... Fox masterfully conveys the exhilaration and loneliness of life undercover, and her memoir reads like a great espionage novel."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Extraordinary... [A] remarkable life...Fox engagingly—and transparently—describes her work as an undercover agent for the CIA."
—Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-28
A journalist recounts her formative years in the CIA.
Fox engagingly—and transparently—describes her work as an undercover agent for the CIA, which recruited the author while she was still in college. "What will happen if I tell the world the truth?" she asks, having returned to civilian life as a young single mother following the dissolution of a marriage that was all but arranged by the agency. Motherhood changed her perspective and priorities, and she now devotes herself to the cause of peace. In her fast-moving debut memoir, she seeks to "spill that most secret of secrets: that all we soldiers and spies, all the belching, booming armored juggernauts of war, all the terror groups and all the rogue states, that we're all pretending to be fierce because we're all on fire with fear." The author's life was extraordinary even during her childhood, as if she were being raised for a life in espionage. She often went "wild world-wandering" with her father, who consulted with foreign governments on matters she never quite understood. Fox was raised to invent elaborate fantasies to play with her brother, and her world of make-believe intrigue became real to her as she volunteered to aid refugees after high school and became immersed in global affairs during college. She came to the CIA as an idealist, and she found idealism and basic humanity within those who were apparently pitted against her. She also found that she had to keep the reality of her career a secret from everyone, even from family and friends. Throughout much of her remarkable life, secrecy was the norm, but by the time she left the agency, she'd had enough.
A well-written account of a life lived under exceptional secrecy and pressure.
