I jumped at the opportunity to read Tracy Walder's memoir of her time in the CIA right out of her college sorority at University of Southern California. Her California college girl-turned-spy narrative intrigued me immediately since, in my lifetime, I've watched as women my age and younger have slowly moved into these governmental institutions and broken those glass ceilings. I looked forward to Walder's story in this way.

Throughout the tale, there are sections of text redacted due to Walder's explanations of still-classified situations and events in America's recent history. Her stories of having President George Bush, Sr., and George Tenet looking over her shoulder during the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction appeals for its "this was my real life" tone; however, I really started to struggle with the pro-America-at-all-costs, including a brief "torture is okay, and I would do it too if it were my family" themes pervasive throughout Walder's story. As much as I can allow for her feelings, they seemed both out of place in the narrative and at times, eye-rollingly simplistic and bordering on inhumane and unethical. The current Trumpian administration loves to let these feelings run rampant and control policy, and should that be the case today? Should feelings of revenge or the darker emotions ever control world politics? And waterboarding and other forms of torture are now illegal in America, and so Walder's opinionated emotional reactions seem out of place from within the larger story of her career as she tells it. I kept thinking that the narrative needed some developmental editing to tighten it up.

I'll finish the rest of Walder's story, skimming through some of the parts I've mentioned here, because I'm impressed with her career arc and I most enjoy her descriptions of her actual work and investigative techniques and approaches. I appreciate the publisher's copy and am providing this review in return. I look forward to seeing how the publisher will promote this book in its finished form.

This is an interesting, at times fascinating, look at the author's career as an analyst (in the U.S.) and then as a field operative (overseas) for the CIA and later, her work with the FBI. It was interesting to read how a blonde, Jewish sorority girl from California got her start in the counterterrorism field. Also of interest was the obstacles she faced in a male-dominated field.

She brings a lot of knowledge to the topic, of course, and talks of successes, failures, and frustrations. All told in a matter of fact, straightforward way.

It was a good read. I could see room for improvement in how it was told (sometimes it was too matter of fact in style) but it was an interesting read even so. I'd recommend it.

I thought that this book had promise but fell just short of fully delivering. I did enjoy the track of the author going from a sorority house to the CIA, but it felt superficial, almost more like a sorority girl wrote it as opposed to a seasoned undercover agent. I understand that redactions were necessary, but there were other parts that I think could have been more descriptive to make up for the redactions. As a result, I did not get as much insight as I had hoped to from reading the promos. Still, it is a decent example of dispelling stereotypes and pursuing one's dreams. This review is based on a pre-release digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, and all thoughts are my own.

Tracy Schandler Walder writes about her fascinating careers in her memoir: first as a CIA operative right out of college; then as an FBI special agent working to stop hate crimes in the LA area; and currently as a history teacher in at all-girls school where she tries to empower young women.

The CIA section is a little frustrating to read because portions were redacted by the government as containing too sensitive information. This really disrupts the flow of the story and one wishes Tracy had found a way to write about the details of the situation that would have been more acceptable to the CIA. But Tracy worked with the CIA around the time of 9/11 and much of her work was in trying to find weapons of mass destruction for the Bush administration as well as spotting signs of planned terrorist attacks. When her group misses a major one in Europe, Tracy thinks it's time to move on to the FBI and work to stop domestic terrorism.

A thread throughout this memoir is how women are treated in these positions. Things got pretty nasty in the FBI training school and, on the job afterwards, Tracy felt the she was being underutilized because of her gender. Her dream became to work with young women to help them find ways to empower themselves and use their full potential.

Interesting stuff. It's almost hard to believe that the young introspective sorority girl that Tracy describes became this remarkably strong woman but her story is very inspiring so more power to her!

I received an arc of this new memoir from publisher via NetGalley in exchange foe my honest review. Many thanks for an interesting read.

Are you looking for something different? Are you looking for adventure? Intrigue? Travel? Someone who doesn’t give up?

STOP AND READ THIS BOOK! Talk about an amazing memoir. I had to take my time reading this, as The Unexpected Spy is an understatement for who and what Tracy was and is. The subject matter is heavy at times, but told with such heart and feeling, you actually can imagine what it was like to meet the Georges, or go through the agony and misogyny of Quantico.

Understandably redacted at times, you follow Tracy through her government life, and seriously, I want to sit down with her at Starbucks somewhere and ask questions. And sit in on Spycraft!

When we first meet Tracy she’s a shy foreign affairs obsessed sorority girl. She watches CNN for fun, thinks constantly about world events and is a history major who plans to become a teacher and try to change the world that way. At least, that’s what she was planning until she stumbles across the CIA table at her university’s career fair.

September 11th, 2001 Tracy is just a year into her CIA career. She and her coworkers had been surveilling Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden but no one saw the attacks coming. Each and every CIA agent checked and rechecked their intel, devastated and blaming themselves. The action picks up rapidly from here and Tracy finds herself in The Vault being visited by the head of the CIA & prominent members of the Bush administration as her small team spend long shifts watching surveillance footage, trying to get ahead of the terrorists again.

We follow Tracy to various Middle Eastern countries, through her training in the CIA including on the poison team. Tracy ends up part of a group that’s monitoring terror cells focused on chemical weapons and WMDs. It is an intel chart that Tracy created that was altered by someone within the White House and used for justification to invade Iraq. This portion of the story made me furious and Tracy was too but she committed her life to trying to right that wrong. She travels more, sometimes under assumed names, finds herself questioning terrorists who swore they would never speak to a woman and successfully getting the intel needed.

Eventually she decides she wants to settle down someday, be able to date and make friends and not be gone overseas all the time. So she applies for and joins the FBI and works in counterintelligence. In the FBI, unlike most of her time in the CIA, she faces rampant and infuriating amounts of sexism from day one. I found it almost painful to read and Tracy herself was struck not just by the sexism but how narrow and similar the pool of FBI recruits were and suggests a broader and more diverse group would do much better at serving the country. Still, she’s able to incredible work despite the sometimes hostile attitudes. In a single year she helps take down one of the most notorious foreign spies ever caught on American soil.

All the sexism and misogyny gets Tracy thinking about teaching again. The bullying she had faced growing up, primarily by other girls, had been the catalyst for her desire to become a teacher. She hoped to use that position as a way to change the way women treat each other and the way they’re treated by others. The atmosphere within the FBI was really bringing these thoughts to head again, and instead of standing for it, Tracy vowed to find a way to change it. So eventually she does leave the FBI and goes back to her dream of teaching & to encouraging young women to find jobs in the CIA, FBI, or government and to change the world.

This book is an absolute ride and I was riveted from start to finish. I could relate to young Tracy. We were both introverted Jewish women passionate about Foreign affairs, the Middle East & counterterrorism. I was aware that the CIA and FBI did interviews at my university and that my field of study- Middle East Studies was exactly the kind of program that could’ve been helpful though my real desire had been to work for the State Department. Illness changed everything for me but I loved getting to live vicariously through Tracy!

There is an especially poignant and heartbreaking scene I can’t get out of my head. In it, Tracy is living and working in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, presumably Iraq or Afghanistan. She suffers a workplace accident and is sent to the military medical tent. Wile she’s recuperating a bomb goes off just outside the American compound. Because the Americans rarely leave and only in heavily armored vehicles, while the bomb was surely intended for them, it instead hit a bunch of women out shopping. Most are dead by the time they’re brought in but one woman is still alive, badly injured, and moaning in pain. She’s placed next to Tracy and keeps making eye contact. The kindly military nurse speaks soothingly and hooks up a morphine drip, holding this woman’s hand and Tracy assumes she will be okay but then learns there is nothing to be done but make her comfortable. The woman continues to make eye contact until she passes. Tracy repeatedly whispers the words “I’m sorry.” This tore my heart apart. The book mentions that far more Muslims have been killed by Islamic terrorists than westerners and to be lying there with a dying person and to know the bomb killing her had been intended for you and the soldiers and agents living around you... Tracy describes the woman’s face as being imprinted in her mind, that she had become a permanent part of her. Few things have ever driven home the heart-wrenching cruelty of the War on Terror like this.

My only caveat with the book is that for all her focus on sexism and misogyny, Tracy herself sure brings up having been in a sorority, her blonde hair, makeup, etc a lot. I’m a girly-girl or very femme leaning woman myself but I don’t know that it’s something I fixated on. Be unapologetically you and go kick ass. And it sure seemed to me that Tracy had nothing to apologize for or explain (yet she absolutely goes into a long explanation of the sorority). It just seemed a bit incongruent with the rest of the book. I almost wondered if the publisher encouraged that take to try and sell the book? And honestly too, I would’ve requested this book much faster than I did on Net Galley if there was zero mention at all to sorority girl turned CIA and FBI and instead the blurb had mentioned that Tracy joined shortly before September 11th. That was the point when I got sucked in and started to love this book. There’s plenty of long haired make-up wearing Middle East and counterterrorism geeks out there. You don’t need to draw us in with sorority talk. We’re already interested.

And it’s also worth mentioning that the book had to be submitted to the CIA Publications Review Board who requested that a number of passages be censored. Tracy made the choice to leave those passages in but blacked out and early on, especially, I just found it frustrating and confusing. I don’t think anything is added by leaving those in and the book would’ve been even better had they been left out and written around in an approved but more coherent way.

All that said, I still highly recommend the book to the people most drawn to books like this anyway. I’m not sure any sort of spin, femininity or sorority or not, was ever going to change who this book appeals most to. If you’re at all like me and care about what goes on in the world or have a passion for foreign affairs and the Middle East, you’ll enjoy this. If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to serve in the CIA or FBI, check this one out.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advanced copy of The Unexpected Spy through Macmillan and Netgalley. This is the true story of a young woman’s experience being recruited by the CIA right out of university and getting immersed into the world of searching for terrorist activity. She then makes a move to the FBI, and then ultimately and bravely makes the decision to become a high school History teacher.


     Sadly, this is the first TRUE story I’ve read about a woman’s experience as a spy. Now, I know there are probably other memoirs out there and maybe it’s because I’ve had my head buried in historical fiction and murder mysteries that I’ve never come across them.


     I so enjoyed this book. Maybe it was because I wanted to be a secret service agent when I was a kid. In seventh grade was the attempted assassination of President Regan. I was obsessed. I clipped all the newspaper articles of the assassin and kept them in a folder. I would read, and reread the contents of my folder, imagining myself in a dark suit and sunglasses shoving the President aside and taking down the assassin with one perfectly aimed gunshot, thus saving the day. Or maybe because Tracy, like me, is a high school teacher, and I too, find joy and fulfilment educating and inspiring young women.          

    Tracy’s journey was not an easy one. She is honest about the sexism and harassment that exits in both the CIA and the FBI. She is often patronized and treated with condescension with a constant pressure of having to prove herself. I appreciated how she paralleled childhood insecurities she possessed as a child with the experiences she was experiencing in their professional life. It is these parallels that make me strongly consider this as a welcome addition to any classroom library.         

     Walder’s story would serve as a strong non-fiction choice for literature circles. Walder’s book is well written, honest and indeed inspiring. High school is a time where young women need to be exposed to a plethora of examples of what they can do with their life outside of high school. I don’t believe “spy” is an option most women consider an option and how wonderful is it to know that you can choose to live a life of adventure saving the world from bad guys!

I devoured this memoir in three sittings. Had I started it on a day off, I’m sure I would have read it in one.

Walder was a sorority girl at USC with plans to become a history teacher. She surprises everyone, herself included when she ends up in the CIA. After 9/11 Walder becomes a chemical terrorism operative working in the field — which means spending months at a time in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe working with agents from other countries to keep tabs on Middle Eastern terrorists who are creating chemical weapons and hatching plans against the West.

The stakes are incredibly high so it is shocking to learn that some agencies in other parts of the world don’t work on Sundays, even if suspected terrorists are getting on a plane headed to their country.

Walder recounts her work as much as possible (whole pages have been redacted by the CIA), some of the training she received, and what it was like to be a woman working in these agencies. In the CIA, she felt like an equal to her male counterparts. It was a different story in the FBI.

This is a thrilling memoir filled with humor. Walder’s mission now is to ensure that girls and women have equal opportunities AND that their unique perspectives and intelligence are used by the government agencies charged with protecting Americans and the U.S.

This book is equal parts fascinating as it pulls back the curtain to show the reality of working in counterintelligence in both the CIA and FBI and frustrating as it shows the stark reality of the roadblocks faced by being a woman in that world.

Plunk! You have woke up in a war zone! Just a few days ago you were a pink-clad USC sorority girl. Now you are in an unnamed desert madhouse working as the most Unexpected Spy.

Get a bird’s eye view of what it’s like to be one of only three women in a US military base where your job is interrogation of foreign suspects. How thrilling!

The book contains spaces where the CIA has redacted some sections for national security. I enjoyed trying to fill in “blanks”. A desert country with IEDs and museum lootings? Only one choice—Iraq. Name of the American forces bar? That one’s harder knowing the military’s penchant for irony. The contrast between working for the CIA and the FBI is striking and not known outside of those agencies. Overall, reading Tracy’s story was entertaining and enlightening. Plus soon the Unexpected Spy will on ABC television. 4 stars!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a great book! This is the first book that I have read by Tracy Walder and I sure it will not be my last! It grabs your attention right from the get go and holds it to the very last page. Everyone should read this book! Thanks for the great book Tracy!

When I was a kid and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I often said "spy", which was partly serious and partly not. I suspected it wouldn't really fit with my other life goals, and besides, how does it happen. Thus, this book was interesting to me. I liked seeing how Tracy Walder got into the business, and I liked how this didn't feel glorified- but seemed a very real glimpse of those people in the trenches of intelligence and the difficulty of the work. One thing I especially liked was the glimpses of powerful women giving encouragement to other women - that is a sadly lacking theme in much fiction and non-fiction. My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book. I'd recommend it to those who are interested in the past 20 years of global events.

Wow! What a fascinating story, I guess I never pictured women in the fight on terror, or if I did it was in a backup role or as a Femme Fatale! But Tracy certainly proved me wrong. Going from college to the CIA could not have been an easy step, but she was certainly up to the challenge. I was very disappointed to read of her treatment with the FBI, I'm hopeful that has changed by now if only because she is now an educator of women hoping to have a career in the CIA/FBI. The instructor at Quantico should have been severely disciplined, I don't know how she managed to keep her cool. She is certainly a role model for women everywhere. Brave Tracy! Many thanks to #NetGalley for the copy of this fascinating story.

A very interesting book full of seemingly true facts about terrorism around the world seen through the eyes of a female agent. The tales told were interesting and kept me reading to discover the next one. Although the POV is female and that point is mentioned quite a few times it is not excessive, but does skim the border of feeling like it is the whole point of the book. Thanks to #netgalley for offering #theunexpectedspy in exchange for an honest review.

(4.5/5) This is a fantastic book! I'm absolutely in awe of Tracy Walder's experience while in the CIA and FBI, and now as a history teacher. She is, in my opinion, a wonderful role model for those young students she is teaching. Her story is absolutely fascinating and eye-opening. This is a book not to be missed. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

Tracy Walder applied to the CIA for a job while still in college at USC. She was selected and trained to protect innocent people around the world from being killed by terrorists. A good deal of her work was done at a desk in Quantico, but a much of it was also done in foreign countries working with others who were just as focused and determined to keep the world safe. At one point in her career with the CIA, Ms. Walder decided to apply to the FBI, hoping to be able to settle down in one location and have fewer secrets from those she loved. Her training at the FBI was difficult, but the sexism and bullying from her trainers made it much worse. Fortunately, upon completion of her training, she was granted a position near her parents' home in California and she spent several years working there. Ms. Walder ultimately left the FBI to teach at an all girls private school. Her story is fascinating and disturbing and very clearly illustrates what an intelligent and talented woman she is.

Thank you to Netgalley, the authors Tracy Walder and Jessica Anya Blau, and the publisher St. Martin's Press for a free digital ARC of this very interesting book. This is my honest opinion.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Tracy Walder shed her braces, spotty complexion and introverted nature to become a terrorist-hunting spook for the CIA. How does a sorority girl make the leap from Jack-and-Coke to cloak-and-dagger? Check out The Unexpected Spy by Tracy Walder — it’s a rush!

It started in the most genuine, innocent way: a young student passionate about history and politics attended a job fair and left a CV to the CIA stand. Shortly after, she got a call at her sorority house and started the recruitment process that she concluded successfully. At 22, she enters the Agency as a woman, the youngest and often the only woman from teams she was part of.

Woman, Jewish, often bullied in school but other girls, Tracy is resilient: 'ignore them, shore up, focus on what you want to do, who you want to be and not what other people want from you'. Long before she joined the agency, she wished she is able to be part of a context that allows her to change something from this world: 'More than ever, I wanted to be part of the solution to these worldwide and domestic problems, but I couldn't bring myself to admit this aloud'. I dare to say many political science graduates nurture such wishes, but not all achieve them so straightforward.

During that September 11, 2009 she was already part of the counterterrorism staff and had the feeling of a big professional failure for not being able to prevent the terrorist attacks: 'There had been chatter about Al Qaeda's plan to hijack planes, there had been chatter about plans to blow up buildings. But no one in the CIA had detailed information about when or where'.

For Tracy, the stakes are high and she travels often all over the world to cope with the new realities. The cause of her disappointments are not only related to the complexities of the new situations on the ground but also due to the new hawkish American policy directions. And there is something else that seems to interfer with her professional qualifications, especially when abroad: the fact that she is a woman. Intelligence doesn't need to have a gender but not everyone working in the field of intelligence is intelligent.

The worse is yet to come: as she decided to change career and was accepted in the FBI, the sheer degree of sexism and bullying encountered during her training is hard to imagine. But apparently, the order of the day.

Tracy's voice is genuine, avoiding any pathetic temptations. It's rather describing than making personal statements or offering an adventurous account of her life. It is a story of a journey of self-discovery and ackowledging of the reality, including of the unfair limits women had to fight against everywhere, even by succumbing to the temptations of becoming themselves the defender of the mysoginistic injustices.

But Tracy wants to change the world therefore she will not accept this 'reality' aiming at offering to her daughter something different. Therefore, The Unexpected Spy is more than an adventurous account of a lady spy, it is a book about personal experiences and women voices that want to be heard.

The final version of the book was sanctioned by the departments in charge of the intelligence agencies and the sensitive fragments were obliterated.



Rating: 3.5 stars

In Unexpected Spy, Tracy Walder takes us inside what life is like for a young woman working in the male dominated world of the CIA and the FBI. This is a fascinating insider telling of life inside the CIA in the days before and following 9/11. Tracy gives us intimate details of her early life and the path that led her to pursue careers with the CIA, FBI and eventually to a career as a teacher in an all girl school in Texas where she uses her experiences to empower the next generation of young women to break down barriers and reach for their dreams. This story is both remarkable for the achievements chronicled and appalling and disheartening for the misogynistic culture described in leading law enforcement agencies like the FBI. Given Tracy’s background as a so called floppy child who was relentlessly teased throughout her school years, her achievements are nothing short of remarkable. There are several pages that include redactions, and while they are annoying, I don’t think it takes much away from the main meat of this story. This story is appealing as a tale of empowerment and as a insider viewpoint of events of important historical significance. Definitely a recommended read. Especially for all the women out there who are told they can’t make it because of their gender. Review posted to Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon.

The Unexpected Spy is an interesting book about a young woman who is recruited by the CIA right out of college. Imagine a Southern California sorority girl, young, blond, and introverted working for the CIA - pretty unbelievable, but you need to believe it, because that is exactly what Tracy Schandler Walder did. Not only did she work for the CIA, but she did it masterfully, interrogating terrorists, mapping terrorist cells around the world, and protecting thousands of lives in the process. When the travelling challenged her desire to have a family, she left her beloved CIA for the FBI, where sadly, the experience of the treatment of women there was so bad that Tracy had to leave. Turning her sights to teaching young women and sharing her experiences with them was the next part of her career.
I enjoyed the way Tracy was portrayed in the book - at times, self-conscious and not sure of her herself, and at other times, strong and confident - usually in the performance of her duties. She also described herself as blond, liking lipstick, fashion, the color pink, and getting her hair highlighted. I think these descriptions made her more human and down-to-earth, letting us know that she still wanted normalcy in her life, in the midst of the hard war-torn world in which she operated. It made her real to me. Also, she was under 25 years old and facing some of the worst situations you could imagine, and facing it with professionalism.
There are parts of the book where we see Tracy having fun (during various training experiences), or walking / running alone in a foreign city. Again, these instances show us a different side of Tracy than what we might think of when we think of a CIA operative.
After reading this book, I was fortunate to hear Tracy and Jessica speak at The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore. What an amazing experience hearing about their process in writing this story, and hearing Jessica discuss her next chapter in life. I am privileged that I was able to hear them discuss this book.
This book is not only about Tracy's life as a spy, but also about the empowerment of women - and how we still must fight to be accepted in certain areas where men still treat women as less than equal, as happened to Tracy at the FBI. I know I will be thinking about Tracy's bravery and her work to make us all safer for a long time.
All opinions are my own.
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