The darkness follows

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, fbi, law enforcement, criminals, criminal behavior, memoirs

This is not a scene you want to see through your peephole. The SWAT Team members in this image could be FBI or any other (It's a generated image, so it's generic). When an apparent threat rises to the right level, these guys show up to make an arrest…at the very least.

I say "guys" advisedly. While there are female tactical officers, they are rare, in part because of the physical strength and stamina required. Some policewomen are big and strong enough to meet the requirements. Years ago, I had a good friend of mine whose wife was a policewoman. Karen was about an inch shorter than my six feet, we weighed the same, and she was probably stronger than I. We took judo and jujitsu at the same dojo, and she was definitely better than I was at both skills. A formidable sparring partner!

Jana Monroe is, by her own admission, petite. She still might be able to whup me; my mother could. Mom taught at the same dojo, and weighed almost 100 pounds less than I did. So she was also petite. Slow practice between Mom and me was hard on her because she couldn't hold me up during a "slow throw". But let her move fast, and watch out! In the case of Mrs. Monroe, she excelled at both enforcement and detection/profiling.

As she tells us in her memoir Hearts of Darkness: Serial Killers, the Behavioral Science Unit, and My Life as a Woman in the FBI, after several years in city policing, her 22 year career in the FBI culminated in a term as an SAC (Special Agent in Charge) of the Phoenix office. Along the way she broke through more glass ceilings than I could keep track of. It took a huge amount of grit. She describes the barriers the "old boy networks" and institutional suspicion of women put in her way, and the determination and self-proving she had to undergo over and over again.

It seems she is proudest of the five years she spent with the Behavioral Science Unit, the "profiling" group that tries to get inside the minds of the most serious offenders: serial killers being first in line. In a chapter that switches back and forth between a couple of real cases and the film Silence of the Lambs (for which she was a consultant, training Jodie Foster), we learn that the worst serial killers are fully the equal, or more, of the characters portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine.

More than this I decline to say. Mrs Monroe tells of the growing unease in her, that she was partaking of the darkness in the hearts of the country's worst criminals. I am reminded of the proverb, "You can't rassle with a skunk and come out smelling like a rose." Given a stunning opportunity, she took it, retiring from the FBI a bit earlier than the mandatory age of 57. She and her husband, Dale, also an FBI agent, are happier "on the other side". I found myself quite happy to finish this fascinating book. It is all too easy to be drawn into the darkness.

A bit of advice. The book will get into you. Some parts you wouldn't want to read while eating (I read when I eat alone).