Zero Fail
The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service
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Zero Fail
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Narrated by:
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Maggi-Meg Reed
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Carol Leonnig
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Written by:
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Carol Leonnig
About this listen
New York Times best seller
“This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work - the determinative work - in this field.... Terrifying.” (Rachel Maddow)
The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 - by the Pulitzer Prize winner and number one New York Times best-selling co-author of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post
Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today - from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn’t always so troubled.
The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgment: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains.
To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that’s in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”
©2021 Carol Leonnig (P)2021 Random House AudioWhat the critics say
“This book is a wake-up call, and a valuable study of a critically important agency.” (The New York Times)
“Zero Fail is an important book, one that will ruffle feathers in need of ruffling and that will be useful to legislators, policymakers and historians alike.” (The Washington Post)
“Here is journalism as a true and honest public service.... [Zero Fail] is just terrific.” (The Wall Street Journal)
What listeners say about Zero Fail
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- A
- 2021-12-18
a good account of organizational failings
spoilers below
First off I think all the talk about the author being a horrible narrator is overblown. She is not that bad
Next, the author's anti trump views are not really surprising and do not tarnish the message. I believe in her overall message, that she is pointing out these flaws to help the service improve.
Where I did think the book was weaker, was in spending a lot of time discussing affairs between agents (which is likely an issue in a lot of workplaces and didn't necessarily impair their job performance). Also I think that the section on trump lacks a bit of perspective as it was written during or immediately after his tenure. I think it would have been better to have written that part a few years after he left and the pandemic was over to understand any influence he had in a broader sense.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Micah Clark
- 2023-09-14
Less salacious than you might expect
More historical than I expected, which was great. Fascinating anecdotes throughout. Secret service is more of a mess than I realized!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Myrna B
- 2021-07-10
Well researched, lots of information here.
While acknowledging how difficult it is to read such extensive material, Carol is factual, unemotional, and at one point near the end, vocally exhausted. The information in this deep dive is interesting and in some ways predictable, and it confirms many of the things suspected by the public as we watched it unfold before us. Well done, Carol. I’ll be watching for your next tour de force.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thomas Rodriguez
- 2021-07-02
Great insight into the service
The book was great. The author seemed to remain objective until the last section of the book. It was fitting she narrated it as the language used was full of bias, which wasn’t seen in the previous sections.
Overall a great listen if you are interested in the subject.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul Wilson
- 2021-07-09
Fabulous and frightening
I am already a huge fan of Carole Leonnig, having watched her numerous times on interviewed on MSNBC and CNN. Equally I found her collaborative book “A Very Stable Genius” co authored with Phil Rucker an extraordinarily revealing description of the real (and dangerous) Donald Trump.
Zero Fail is a detailed, compelling and in many ways a frightening expose of one of the security services in the USA that suffers from ineptitude, leader arrogance and gross mismanagement.
This is an important piece of research and hopefully will be a wake up call to those responsible to make the changes needed.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sheila Newel
- 2021-07-28
Good Journalism; Mediocre Editing
The content of this book is not only interesting, but hopefully also impactful. The writing is okay but the editing is poorly done; had it been better lots the frequent trite and unnecessary phrases would have been removed. I wouldn’t let this deter you if you are contemplating checking out the dangerous behaviour of the Secret Service AND Presidents.
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