Stalling for Time

May 31, 2010
Noesner, a former FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years, was the first person to run the bureau's Crisis Negotiation Unit. Looking back, he recalls some major standoffs along with his efforts to understand and interpret the behavior of hostage takers, sometimes finding negotiations thwarted by the actions of his own colleagues. The compelling centerpiece of the book is Noesner's analysis of "what went wrong at Waco" with the Branch Davidians when negotiation and tactical teams were working at cross purposes. After opening with a dramatic account of a man who abducted his estranged common-law wife and their son and was holding a gun to her head, Noesner describes his own "quintessentially American childhood," when he got the idea for his life's work from a segment about the FBI on The Mickey Mouse Club. Drawing on official reports, personal notes, memos, and memories of conversations, he writes with a simple style that nevertheless generates much suspense, recreating past events with a vivid intensity certain to fascinate true crime readers.

July 1, 2010

Longtime FBI hostage negotiator Noesner details his rise from mail clerk to the first chief of the agency's Crisis Negotiation Unit.

The author's low point came in Waco, Texas. As one of the negotiators the FBI sent to coax David Koresh and the Branch Davidians out of their compound, Noesner and his team spent weeks trying to bring a peaceful end to the standoff. They continually bargained with the group and had the Davidians ready to leave the compound—until Koresh had a vision from God. Unfortunately, at the time, FBI officials eschewed negotiation for force, something that Noesner had spent more than a decade trying to dissuade. It would take one tragedy (Waco), a few years and several congressional investigations before his tactics—calm, prolonged negotiation—would be vindicated and made the standard for law enforcement. The narrative chronicles how Noesner helped to define those tactics through a series of standoffs—a prison riot in Ohio, a domestic kidnapping in Virginia, a standoff with secessionists in Texas. Each case had its own unique set of issues that Noesner and his team had to solve. The author effectively provides an intense, immersive narrative, making his real-life experiences read like episodes of a good cop drama. By the end of the book, readers will be impressed by the number of crucial moments in which Noesner has played a significant role—from the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985 to the Freeman militia standoff in Montana in 1996.

Vicariously entertaining.

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