DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR PARENTS?

A retired government agent recalls his adventurous career in security.

Jan Marie and Bob Ritter, the married co-authors of this lively, eye-opening memoir, recount Bob’s tumultuous life as a former member of the U.S. Secret Service based in Washington, D.C. Narrated by Jan Marie, a former elementary school teacher, the book (which has a confusing, irrelevant title) begins in early 1981 on the day of the attempted assassination of President Reagan. Her testimony depicts Bob as a seasoned, intuitive government operative fully aware of (and attentive to) the vulnerable hot spots near the Washington Field Office territory. The book retraces Bob’s steps toward realizing his “personal life mission” to prevent another assassination. The author describes her husband’s preoccupation with the legend of Tecumseh’s Curse. The curse is thought to have cost seven U.S. presidents their lives, and Bob sought to help Reagan avoid this fate, though he wasn’t assigned to the president’s detail. This obsession with intercepting the curse became “a central theme and motivator of his career decisions.” The book backtracks in history to Bob’s defining ordeals, both international and domestic, when, after years with the U.S. Park Police and a brush with assassin Samuel Byck, he realized a life goal of joining the Secret Service in 1975. Jan Marie writes of her surprise when her husband confessed to a firm belief in having past lives, a knack for foresight, and the intricate nonverbal communication gifts he shared, since infancy, with a spectral “collective consciousness” community. The book’s narration from Jan Marie’s point of view sometimes leaves the reader with unanswered questions about Bob’s perspective. However, through a riveting series of stories and revelations, the Ritters collaboratively present a portrait of determination, personal sacrifice, and “patriotic ideals and civic service.” While the book requires an appreciation for unexplained phenomena and mystical beliefs, it never reads as contrived and touches on several seminal moments in American political history.

An eye-opening glimpse inside the experiences and beliefs of a secret service agent.