A Journey to the Center of the Mind: The "First Ten" FBI Years

Volume 3

By: James R. Fitzgerald

Narrated by: John Gully

Upon graduating from the FBI academy, newly minted Special Agent James “Fitz” Fitzgerald heads to his first office - New York City. Once there, Fitz is immediately assigned to the highly-respected bank robbery squad. The investigations begin. Before long, he’s involved in the arrest of serial killers, murderers, robbers, kidnappers, extortionists, and pedophiles (including a fellow FBI agent), all on his way to a promotion to Quantico to the profiling unit. Fitz’s first assignment as a profiler is to the Unabom task force in San Francisco. Once there, he helps finally solve the 17-year long investigation...with language, of all things.

©2017 James R. Fitzgerald (P)2019 James R. Fitzgerald

Very interesting

I read this on the recommendation of a friend, and I went through it in 3 days. The book was clearly delineated between major cases the investigator worked during a period of time, and sufficient detail was given to actually understand the play by play. It was interesting reading for someone who likes puzzles and mystery stories. I wish there were more of Fitz's books available on audible.

Dry? Not if you're a psychology geek

Ok. John Gully is not my favorite for this type of book. His voice is pleasant to listen to but his attempts to convey the humor intended by the author fall flat.

This book is also not the best example of writing from a technical standpoint. A Master's in Linguistics does not an author make. At times this reads more like a flow of consciousness than anything else, and the author frequently switches between present and past tense, sometimes in the same sentence! Also, while I appreciate pun-centered humor, I think it was a combination of the weird timing and poor delivery that caused them to have the opposite effect.

All that being said, if you're in any way interested in profiling, psychology, or criminology, you'll likely be as fascinated as I was. It's a fascinating peek into the criminals that Fitz tracked down, as well as into his own psyche as he was making his way through these investigations.

Riveting!

James Fitzgerald tells you step by step how he caught the Unabomber. A behind the scenes workings of the FBI.
He is a real bulldog and is an example of believing in yourself.

John Gully does an excellent job narrating and bringing the characters to life.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I wish the rest of these books were on Audible!

Love the book. It has been nonstop listening. I have tried to put it aside but I keep coming back to it. I would love to have all of them on Audible. Mr. Fitzgerald please, please put the rest on Audible! I have listened to you on numerous podcasts and your stories are always great. Getting to hear the entire set would be amazing!

Excellent Book

it brings up things you don't think about when reading about or watching the news on a case.

Verbose Braggadocio

This is a very tedious book to get through. 75% unnecessary details with some occasional interesting nuggets. I was mostly interested in the UNABOMB investigation which is a relatively small portion of the book. The rest is tedious detail.

Very, very long-winded

I was interested in this mostly because of his work in linguistic profiling. However, the writing is extremely long-winded, and can get kind of boring. I'll finish listening to it, just in case something interesting crops up. There is some interesting information about FBI organizational structure and investigation procedures.