Hearts of Darkness

August 21, 2023
In this fascinating debut, Monroe shares how she rose in the FBI’s ranks and became the inspiration for the character of Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Ever since she was a child in 1960s Long Beach, Calif., Monroe longed to work in law enforcement, but as a petite blonde, the road wasn’t easy: she lacked role models (“I would have done better to search for Amelia Earhart’s remains”) and chafed against the old boys’ club atmosphere of police departments. When she scored an interview with the FBI in the 1980s after growing dissatisfied with her policing assignments in Southern California, she was called into a “special joint interview” with her then husband to “make sure he supported” her ambitions. He didn’t, and attempted to dissuade Monroe from joining, but she divorced him and took the job. The stories Monroe shares of her 22 years in the FBI are thrilling, frightening, and occasionally amusing (like the time she and a colleague went charging into a hotel room to arrest a suspect at the same time—and got stuck in the doorway). In sharp, no-nonsense prose, Monroe describes delving into the psyches of such killers as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and finding love with a fellow agent, with whom she survived the 1992 FBI siege at Ruby Ridge. Readers interested in criminology will devour this. Agent: Steve Ross, Steve Ross Agency.

September 15, 2023
This is a fascinating memoir from a woman who reached the upper ranks of the FBI. Monroe, an integral member of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit during the 1990s, is a natural, engaging storyteller whose touches of humility and wry humor temper the horrors she details. Readers will be astonished by the experiences she relates as both a consultant on notorious cases and an adviser to movie actors. Monroe's FBI tenure coincided with a time of unprecedented challenges to national security. Although Monroe describes her role as primarily exciting and rewarding, she shows remarkable candor when recalling the endemic sexism and patronizing attitudes she was forced to endure. Now in the private sector, Monroe still exhibits deep respect for the FBI's mission and gratitude for its operatives. This forthright account focuses on the victims and procedures, not on the often-aggrandized perpetrators. Wince-inducing details may prove troubling for some readers, but the facts are portrayed for instruction, not effect. Those with a strong interest in investigative methodology and FBI history will race through Monroe's striking narrative.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2023
A memoir from one of the first female profilers in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. As a child, Monroe idolized Dirty Harry, and after majoring in criminology in college, she became a probation officer and then a police officer in Southern California. In 1985, her decision to apply to the FBI ended her first marriage, to a man who mistakenly thought that Monroe's "feminist determination to succeed in law enforcement would yield over time to a woman's natural desire to bear children and mother them above all else." When she began her training at Quantico, she met a fellow agent who would become her "second and permanent husband." While posted in Tampa, she went undercover as an aerobics instructor to investigate some "New York Mafia types," and one case, a triple homicide, affected her deeply. Consequently, she joined the Behavioral Science Unit, "one of the Bureau's truly elite units," focused on serial homicide. BSU, housed in a "dismal subterranean" office at Quantico, was immortalized in The Silence of the Lambs, and Monroe coached Jodie Foster for her role as Clarice Starling. "Hannibal Lecters were our daily diet (no pun intended)," writes Monroe. "We saw echoes of him constantly--through in-person interviews we conducted, by studying their victims' remains, and by poring over case studies of earlier serial killers to hone our understanding." The author is clear about the determination it took to thrive in the "male-driven and male-defined world of the FBI." She makes no bones about the challenges she faced, nor does she shy away from describing the "psychological toll" of the job. Refreshingly, Monroe injects some humor amid the descriptions of pure evil. While the narrative occasionally drifts into hodgepodge territory, the author is an affable narrator, and her career accomplishments need no embellishment. Fans of true crime will find much to enjoy in this absorbing chronicle of criminology.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 6, 2023

Monroe, who helped train Jodie Foster for her role as Clarice Starling in the film The Silence of the Lambs, chronicles her prolific time in the FBI (she worked about 850 cases). The author does not spare readers the gruesome details of her work as she rose through the ranks to become one of the first women agents in the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). As such, she faced many challenges and prejudices from the man-dominated FBI itself, and she openly describes all that she endured. Readers will see that Monroe did not allow any obstacle to stop her from reaching her goals. Her book, which flows from one story to the next, also documents the encounters she had with serial killers (Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and more), the impact that had on her career and life, and how justice was served. VERDICT A gripping and readable memoir that's an essential read for audiences who want to understand the history of the FBI and the BSU. True-crime fans will enjoy Monroe's tales about some of the most memorable cases she worked.--Leah Fitzgerald

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