In 2005, after working for ten years in a comfortable but mundane corporate job in San Antonio, Texas, Vincent Sellers successfully managed to leave behind a dreary cubicle landscape and begin the exciting challenges of a crime-fighting FBI agent. His journey is chronicled in Eyes Pried Open: Rookie FBI Agent.Readers will experience both the highs and the lows of an FBI agent working bank … working bank robbery, kidnapping, murder-for-hire cases, and border-related crimes in San Diego, California. The book’s from-the-heart narrative demonstrates that the typical lifestyle of an FBI agent assigned to a violent crime squad may not be for everyone. This is the first book to be written from the fresh perspective of an agent who joined the FBI after 9/11.
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Interesting first hand look inside the ‘real’ FBI rather than the TV version. Written with genuine affection for the people committed to protecting us for and the organization.
Interesting to read the process to becoming an FBI agent.
Wow. This totally gives me a new perspective on the FBI , crime and the issues along the Mexican border I would never have dreamed of.
I only recommend this book if you want a cursory look at becoming and being an FBI agent for a short period of time. I was really disappointed in this book. I expected more colorful detail regarding the Academy & on-the-job experiences. I totally understand the necessity of not revealing all training techniques or confidential information on cases but this author just seems to gloss over the details that could make his story much more interesting. He seems dissatisfied from the moment he enters the Academy to the time he resigns. Although his dream of being an FBI agent didn’t turn out the way he wanted, he appears whiny throughout instead of objective and informative.
Great memoir of a work-a-day FBI agent. The author could have been the guy you went to college with or who sat in the next cubicle at your first job who decided he needed more purpose in his life and decided to apply to the FBI. I knew a guy like that where I worked.
Great read about life in the FBI
Very juvenile writing — written and glamorized for a 11-14 age group, rather than the adult for which it was intended. As others have noted, the chapters about the author’s training at the academy were somewhat well written and interesting, but it went downhill from there.
Words like “excitement” and “enjoyment,” and phrases like “…waited anxiously, envisioning a drugged-crazed capture the imagination and intrigue of a child, but does nothing for the adult who’s reading the book. For example, the redundancy of using “enjoy, enjoyed,” or “enjoyable 81 times; or using words “deepest and darkest secrets” rather than “classified information” demonstrated that he does not know his adult audience.
It was interesting at first but it went on too long. I read about 3/4 of it And then gave up on it.
An extremely honest book, not at all vindictive or bitter, but realistic ideas for improving efficiency.
I’m always interested in knowing more about training completed for jobs such as FBI agents, Police, etc., and what the jobs truly consist of. This former agent clearly related what the training consisted of, and what his job entailed. I finished the book feeling a stronger appreciation of what is done for the safety of US citizens, AND non-US Citizens. Understanding a bit more of significant dangers can await an agent humbles me. Thank you for sharing this informative read.
Started out being interesting but halfway through became repetitious and whiny.
It was nice to see his perspective on the the FBI. The grass is not always greener on the other side!
Sophomoric….
While the story is an interesting look into the FBI, it only skims across the top. I feel the author is trying to convince us how wonderfully patriotic the FBI is. All sounds a bit like propaganda to me, but I still found it an interesting read.
Mediocre. Lacks editing. It’s about a guy that got hired by the FBI and worked two whole years, then quit. There. Saved everyone some money.
Good book. It gives an inside view of life in the FBI Academy as well as in the street as a rookie agent. There were quite a few grammar mess-ups. But that did not affect the story line. I enjoyed it and recommend it.
Excited by the concept, but the writing is boring. Much complaining and personal matters that distract. Couldn’t finish it.
I always suspected that the real life of an FBI agent was kind of mundane and boring. This book proves it.
Really rather everyday to be expected stories.
This is an okay book; it wont set the world on fire, but it does document the training and the first 2 years of being an FBI agent. Not sure the motivation for the author writing the book, maybe a justification for only serving 2 years before resigning to go back to a corporate life.