First published 2019
Amaryllis Fox recounts her decade serving in the CIA's most secretive operations unit. Her journey began at Oxford, where she studied theology and international law until her mentor Daniel Pearl was murdered by terrorists. This tragedy drove her to Georgetown, where she developed an algorithm that could predict terrorist cell formation in villages worldwide. The CIA recruited her at twenty-one. She started by analyzing classified cables and writing presidential briefings, then moved to the Counterterrorism center's Iraq desk. At twenty-two, Fox entered advanced training at "the Farm," learning weapons handling, escape techniques, torture resistance, and suicide methods. The agency then deployed her under non-official cover as an art dealer specializing in tribal works. This false identity allowed her to penetrate terrorist networks across remote regions of the Middle East and Asia. Throughout these dangerous assignments, Fox married and became a mother. Her memoir reveals the personal cost of living multiple identities while hunting the world's most wanted terrorists.
Genres: autobiography, action, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, espionage
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-cost, secret-identity
Setting: Asia, Iraq, Middle East, Oxford, Washington D.C.
Period: 21st Century
352 pages · Paperback · Random House Large Print
Content warnings: violence