Zero Fail

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 #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of A Very Stable Genius.

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light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today - from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency's once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws.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 judgement - 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 tantalising 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.

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

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

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