Painting Over Rust Stories From a 20 Year Odyssey in the FBI

Winner of the 2023 IAN Book of the Year Award in the Government/Politics Category
CIBA 2023 Journey Award Shortlist
SPR 2022 Book Awards Finalist
CIBA 2023 Military and Front Line Non-Fiction Shortlist

A personal memoir that vividly describes life inside America's most prestigious and controversial law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a career spanning 20 years, Fuller had a front-row seat to the activity and sweeping changes within the FBI in the opening decades of the 21st century. Written with a clarity and humor not usually found in a career federal investigator, Fuller recounts the seminal events of his career as an FBI Special Agent. In doing so, he takes us along through his days as a new agent trainee at the Academy in Quantico, Virginia, various criminal investigations, 9/11 and the immediate response, interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and missions while attached to military units in Afghanistan. From his work chasing those who target children for sexual exploitation, including hunting, capturing, and convicting one he put on the Top 10 Fugitive list, to the inner workings of Capitol Hill while assigned there as part of the FBI's Office of Congressional Affairs, Fuller walks us through it all, with refreshing honesty and self-deprecating humor. Whether offering his unique perspective on his fellow "brick agents" or the four FBI Directors he worked for and with during his time "on the job", he provides valuable and unvarnished first-person observations that will inform anyone interested in what it is really like to have been a member of the storied FBI.