The Unexpected Spy by Tracy Walder was a highly anticipated read for me after Jet Girl and Inside the Hot Zone. This memoir follows an all-American sorority girl from California as she narrates her experiences as a spy in the CIA, a domestic agent for the FBI, and her current position as a history teacher at an all girls school. After all the sexism you hear about in the military and government agencies, it was interesting to see how supportive the CIA was of her and how successful she was in her job. After the thrill of those adventures though, the opposing disaster of the FBI was doubly disappointing.

Walder does a great job describing the highs and the lows of her travels and assignments, and it is easy to get swept up in the emotions she describes, whether that is excitement or disappointment, anticipation or anger. While not her entire career played out as she had envisioned, it's still nice to see how she took it upon herself to do her best to change the future for the rising generation of women.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars — deducting a bit for the FBI portion because it made me MAD (not at Tracy/the writing, just in general lol)

Started this yesterday and finished it on my commute this morning and I have approximately 100000 more questions for Tracy.

This book was right up my alley, but I didn’t realize just how much I would enjoy it! My favorite sections were about her time in the CIA, and honestly I wouldn’t have been mad had the whole book been about the CIA. I wish she would have talked more about her first year at the CIA, settling in, figuring everything out, being the “new kid,” so to speak.

I loved hearing about all of her travels in the Middle East and Europe, and trying to determine which country she was in by the details she gave.

What a time to start at the CIA, just before 9/11 — her experiences in the Vault and being surrounded by George Tenet, President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, NSA advisor and future Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, and people that have colored my early childhood (in good ways and bad) was such a fascinating, compelling read. I could have read 200 more pages about her experiences, and I am sure that she has more to tell!

I was most frustrated with the section about her FBI experiences — I sincerely hope that the rampant sexism and all around bullshit has gotten better in the 15 ish years since she was at the FBI, but it set my teeth on edge for sure. And I’m pissed because the FBI lost a fiercely intelligent, quick-on-her-feet agent and spoiler alert, IT’S TOTALLY THEIR FAULT. I mean, she always wanted to be a teacher and mold young girls to be leaders and changemakers (which is AWESOME and I salute you, Tracy!!) but still. It bugged me immensely (and that’s an understatement!).

I had such a love/hate relationship with the black barred redactions — I think it was a unique (and perfect) stylistic choice to have readers see what exactly (Or how much) the CIA redacted, but it drove me insane because I was always so sucked in, and I would turn the page and there would be a page or 2 of black. It was absolutely infuriating because I wanted to know what happened!!!!

One more thing — I want to be in Tracy’s Spycraft class!!! It sounds fantastic and I would have LOVED something like that when I was in high school!!!

DNF, I expected more from this, and it did not deliver.

When I think about all of the different horrific things that could possibly happen (have happened, are happening, will happen) in this world I feel terrified. I’m lucky enough to live in a place that is relatively safe, and where, if I want to, I can shut the news off and pretend nothing is happening. (I don’t do that because I like to know what is going on, but technically I could if I wanted to). As I was reading The Unexpected Spy I was acutely aware of how terrifying it must be to actually know what certain people are planning, but not being able to predict where and when. I’m sure most people who work in counterterrorism must be so sleep deprived… How could one really sleep when you have this direct knowledge constantly right in front of you?

I found this memoir quite interesting! I have a love/hate relationship with my personal interest in all things spy related, mainly because I don’t know if we can balance the terrible with the good when it comes to agencies such as the CIA. But reading this book was quite interesting, even though any of the really gritty content was actually redacted by the CIA, and left in the narrative as redacted. Tracy Walder writes in a conversational style that is easy to follow, and you can see why her job within the CIA was perfect for her, and why she did so well in it. There are some instances which are a little too “America!!!” for me, but I guess that is to be expected. (Phrases such as “we were trying to save the whole wide world” were a bit too much for me, but I suppose that is what she really believed, so we can’t fault her for that). Also the references to “Europeans” grated on me a little - we are not all the same! Europe is comprised of many different countries, languages, and cultures, and we are all quite different! I understand that the author couldn’t refer to actual countries, but it is a pet peeve of mine, to group “Europe” into one uniform country, in the same way as it really annoys me when people refer to the continent of Africa as one huge country.

I enjoyed reading on how the author became an operative in the CIA, and how she moved around within the agency, and then ended up working for the FBI. The work itself sounds like it was absolutely grueling, terrifying, and extremely taxing on both mental and physical health. I remember when I was living in Israel in the early 2000’s and someone told me that for every terrorist that made it through, Mossad caught 99 who didn’t, but we would never hear about those stories. I guess the same is correct elsewhere: unless the US needs a good propaganda boost we most likely don’t hear about half of the potential attacks. People such as Tracy spend their lives doing work that we will never hear about, and that itself is kind of fascinating.

All in all this is a pretty straightforward read, with some intriguing information on what it was like to be a CIA operative involved in counterterrorism after 9/11. I do wish that the redacted content had been removed… It didn’t bother me too much, but there are parts that are practically completely redacted, what was the point in even keeping it? There are also a few stereotypes that I think the author added to provide more insight into the location where she was at the time, but they annoyed me more than anything (it’s not hard to figure out which European country she is referring to with the “bland food” and the cabbies that automatically spoke to her in English). There are a few others that pop up through-out the memoir too. I think this would be a good read for people interested in learning more about counterterrorism and the CIA, but not if you are looking for a deep, hard fact-based read on the agency itself. There is also some good information on the transition from CIA to FBI which I thought was quite intriguing.

What I found the most interesting is how Tracy was treated in both the CIA and the FBI (spoiler alert, the FBI appears to be a lot more misogynistic than the FBI), and how she is now using those experiences to empower and inspire young women to go for the top jobs they deserve. Her classes sound awesome!!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

There is a lot that is interesting about this book and the author gives some good views into worlds few of us will know. The below average rating is largely because writing itself in the book just couldn’t hold my attention consistently.

4.5 *
GREAT! Witty, interesting, relatable. Highly recommended.

I loved this book, not only because I got to get insight into what it's like in the CIA and FBI(Which are potential career options for me) but I got to hear her story. It was interesting and inspiring, and it kept me wanting to know more.

This was a quick, yet intriguing read. Enjoyable to hear about past events through the lens of a participant, and to hear how her experiences led her to today. I especially loved the epilogue.