Rating: 
Summary: FANTASTIC !!
Review: Very well written. It gave me chills and I actually got out of bed to double check the locks on the doors and windows (twice) during one chapter! What an amazing life Candice Delong has lead. Any girl or woman interested in a career in law enforcement must read this!
Rating: 
Summary: Lock your doors, pull down the shades
Review: I'm even MORE paranoid than I was before now that I've finished Candice DeLong's book. Her tales of the cases she's been involved with are truly intriguing and often chilling. However, if you're looking for an inside scoop on the FBI, you certainly won't find it here. DeLong doesn't offer any suprising revelations about the hardships of being a woman in this blue-suit environment, nor does she give her reader any critical analysis of the inner workings of the FBI. But, it is a very entertaining (if unsettling) read. At the end of the book, DeLong offers some tips on lessening your chances of becoming a crime victim, but the overall message of the book seems to be a rather doomed one: crime happens, and it happens to people like you and me for no real reason at all.
Rating:
Summary: Candice gives as good as she gets!
Review: What an excellent read! The characters and relationships are very intriguing-the author's world is filled with both obvious and subtle villains, as well as obvious and subtle heroes. Candice herself is fun, likeable and strong enough to give as good as she gets. Though she is being constantly second-guessed, undermined and underestimated, she ends up turning her "weakness" into advantage time and again. The author sets up the rivalry between the FBI and the DEA and her unique role walking between the two. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable account of courage and fidelity.
Review: A lot of people may think that this book doesn't give enough information to learn off of, i think it is a great book. It shows what woman had to go through to surrvive the FBI and its' dominate males. It is a reality book that focuses it content on Candice's expertise (Child Abduction, rape, profiling, other sexual abuse). The book is so real life and you get to share Candice's emotions as she works as an FBI agent. She is also a single mother trying to protect her son from the sorbid underbelly of the world. I couldn't put the book down! It is very exciting and you can read it in days! I highly recommend this book to any female (or male) interested in joing the FBI, or if you just want a fun book to read.
Rating:
Summary: an adrenaline filled read
Review: It's true what some of my fellow reviewers have said about the organizational quirks and the unspectacular prose, but I have to say that this book still makes for a riveting read. Delong may seem a bit puffed up about herself at times, but I think that's our jaded view of females in male jobs nowadays. Considering what a pioneer she was as one of the first female agents (not to mention an Irish Catholic divorcee with a young son), I think we could be a bit more generous. The opening few chapters are very engaging -- they describe dozens of big cases that she helped break or observed first hand. Though it's not the author's fault, it was overwhelming to read about the number of sex offenders and crazed killers who prowl around in our country. Her final chapter gives many good tips at coping with daily situations that have the potential to turn into life threatening ones. I wish the editor or the author had taken out some of the repeated stuff (her occupation as a psych nurse and many double and triple mentions of explanatory material from earlier chapters). Some of the chapters are quite funny too -- the Candy chapter on the "prostitute ring" is memorable for its zany staging and final outcome. I really enjoyed reading first hand about FBI culture.This book is not without it faults, but on the whole it was by turns engrossing, inspiring and sobering.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible profile of dedication and compassion
Review: Candice Delong tells it like it is. This book held me riveted and page turning. I could not put it down. Ms. Delong exemplifies a woman who is dedicated to justice and the right thing to do. At great personal expense Delong did her job. However, as a mother, she had her priorities clearly defined. Delong's son was her greatest priority. The part about the Unibomber wearing her son's coat touched me deeply. This lady is indeed a national hero. In all the turmoil that America is involved in, it is wonderful to read about a woman who has made a difference in so many lives. Courage, integrity, and ethics all apply to this amazing woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocrity
Review: I read "Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines As a Woman in the FBI" (along with other books) to gain a better understanding of the FBI before applying for employment with the agency. Although much of the book is interesting, there is too much speculation, conjecture, and rambling by Delong. Not too bad, and not great either.
Rating:
Summary: Insiders guide to a woman's perspective of the FBI
Review: This read was compelling and so interesting to walk in the shoes of a female FBI agent. Delong shares her experiences of working with the FBI, cracking cases and her personal P.O.V.
Great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Puzzled, fascinated, disappointed...
Review: I saw Ms. DeLong speak at a local university. I wish I'd read this book beforehand, because I would have posed some tougher questions than those she answered. I was puzzled by Ms. DeLong's attitude toward firearms. She was all for the idea that she could carry one--in fact, she detailed how she felt "honored" when her father gave her one upon her graduation at the FBI Academy. Yet, she seems to be completely opposed to the idea of private citizens owning a firearm. She took a couple of very cheap shots at the NRA, as if blaming them for the actions of the scumbags she helped put in jail...Is she implying that only law enforcement officers should be allowed firearms? Pretty scary proposition, if you ask me, and it demonstrates a pretty poor understanding of the rights she was sworn to protect!
I am sympathetic to the notion that Ms. DeLong likely endured alot of crap that was totally unnecessary as one of the few women in the FBI at the time of her training and assignment...I found myself scratching my head several times during this book.
The book was fascinating in several respects: it had a fast pace, which kept pages turning, the firsthand perspective helped the story come alive, and the criminals themselves...whew! The more I read about some of these creeps, the more painful ways I kept thinking up to punish them for their crimes.
Overall, I give this book 2 stars out of 5, because of the often contradictory notions put forth in it. If you can separate the wheat from the chaff, it's a great book to read for fun. If you are looking for serious information on the FBI, profiling, etc., look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: TOO MUCH FLUFF, NOT ENOUGH SUBSTANCE
Review: I had high hopes for this book since I had read such glowing reviews of it on Amazon. However, there is really very little substantive information in here. I hoped on using it in a course on Criminal Justice that I am teaching in the Fall. I am still using the book, but will have to work harder filling in the analytical gaps that DeLong leaves out...Sure -Special Agent- is a memoir, and thus I am willing to grant the author a fair bit of novelistic license, but she seems to wholly neglect the social processes that are involved in actually solving crimes. From reading her account, one gets the impression that crimes somehow just miraculously solve themselves. Her insights on being a woman and in the FBI are the book's strongest points, and she is also good on rape/sexual violence and profiling. But she is completely uncritical when it comes to things such as the the 'war on drugs' and asset forfeiture laws. She seems to just take it for granted that these laws fall within the realm of "civil" rather than "criminal" violations, but doesn't tell us why this should be the case. This is a fine book for people who believe in shows like 'Cops' and 'America's Most Wanted' and want something comforting to read before they go to bed, but for those of us who would like a more realisitic and thoughtful (rather than emotional) take on the criminal justice system, we will have to look elsewhere.
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