Special Agent Man

Book excerpt: For decades, movies and television shows have portrayed FBI agents as fearless heroes leading glamorous lives, but this refreshingly original memoir strips away the fantasy and glamour and describes the day-to-day job of an FBI special agent. The book gives a firsthand account of a career in the Federal Bureau of Investigation from the academy to retirement, with exciting and engaging anecdotes about SWAT teams, counterterrorism activities, and undercover assignments. At the same time, it challenges the stereotype of FBI agents as arrogant, case-stealing, suit-wearing stiffs with representations of real people who carry badges and guns. With honest, self-deprecating humor, Steve Moore's narrative details his successes and his mistakes, the trauma the job inflicted on his marriage, his triumph over the aggressive cancer that took him out of the field for a year, and his return to the Bureau with renewed vigor and dedication to take on some of the most thrilling assignments of his career. Steve Moore is a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had assignments as a SWAT team operator, sniper, pilot, counterterrorist, and undercover agent. He received multiple awards from the Department of Justice before his retirement in 2008, has written two episodes for an FBI-themed TV series, and is a regular commentator for Headline News. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California.