'Terrifying ... There is certainly heroism here, and there are certainly plots that were foiled, and there are certainly instances of an agency in the moment being well run and foiling an attack and chasing something down and being on top of stuff. But there is an astonishing litany of stuff they have done wrong and scrapes we have narrowly avoided in this country by the skin of our teeth and through sheer luck ... It just flips your stomach up and down. This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work - the determinative work - in this field.'
-- Rachel Maddow
'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 *
'Leonnig's power and authority in Zero Fail is in the marriage of the big picture with details that put a stamp of 'true' on her analysis.'
* NBC-2 *
'Zero Fail, Carol Leonnig's deeply-researched history of the agency, abounds in the colour of a valet's-eye view of recent holders of this office.'
* TLS *
'A pacy and absorbing account of the secret service's heroics, close calls, and blunders.'
-- Pippa Bailey * New Statesman *
'Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Leonnig paints a damning portrait of a federal agency in crisis ... A solid case for restructuring a neglected and neglectful agency whose job is too important to admit laxity.'
* Kirkus Reviews *
'A wonderful takedown of the myths that secret service agents are the pillars of an impenetrable wall around the US president ... Zero Fail is an extended account of the triumphs and failings of the service, including the near misses and 'successful' attempts on the lives of the president and others.'
-- Miles Kemp *
The Advertiser, starred review *
Praise for A Very Stable Genius:
'[Rucker and Leonnig] are meticulous journalists, and this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump's shambolic tenure in office to date ... A Very Stable Genius flicks the lights on from its first pages.'
-- Dwight Garner * New York Times *
Praise for A Very Stable Genius:
'Richly sourced and highly readable ... It is not just another Trump tell-all or third-party confessional. It is unsettling, not salacious.'
-- Lloyd Green * The Guardian *
Praise for A Very Stable Genius:
'Imagine, for a moment, a high-octane courtroom prosecutor summing up for the jury a case built on the vivid testimony of multiple eye-witnesses ... You could scarcely ask for more capable advocates. Leonnig won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the US Secret Service in 2015, then joined Rucker and others on a team awarded the Pulitzer for stories on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Their new, collaborative account ... walks readers step by step through the first 30 months or so of a presidency like no other. They leave little doubt that they and many of their sources regard that presidency as an unmitigated and deepening disaster - a threat to American government as we have known it. Whatever may happen to that impeachment effort in the weeks and months ahead, it creates a moment of intermission in the Trump saga and a chance to consider how the landscape has already been altered by this president. A Very Stable Genius offers a harrowing companion narrative to be read during intermission.'
-- Ron Elving * NPR *
