Of all the tools available to law enforcement, the living, breathing undercover operative remains the gold standard. This is true in TV shows and in the real world. In the era of electronic surveillance, UC work enforces accountability; it prevents mistakes, and of all the boots on the ground, undercover agents are often the most valuable.

The FBI generally has about 100 UC agents working full-time in the field. In the 1990s and 2000s, Marc Ruskin had the most diverse, and notorious, case list of all, and the broadest experience within the bureaucracy, including overseas. He worked ops targeting public corruption, corporate fraud, Wall Street scams, narcotics trafficking, La Cosa Nostra, counterfeiting--and gritty street-level scams and schemes.

Sometimes working three or four cases simultaneously, Ruskin switched identities by the day: Each morning he had to walk out the door with the correct ID, clothes, accessories and frame of mind for that day's mission. Meet Alex Perez, Alejandro Marconi, and Sal Morelli, just a few of Ruskin's undercover personas.

And how is the right UC agent chosen, how is a bogus identity manufactured and "backstopped," how is the Bureau's long-term con painstakingly assembled? No one has ever given us the inside story like Ruskin. The Pretender is the definitive narrative of undercover ops--the procedures, the successes, the failures--and the changes in the culture of the new-era FBI.

Ruskin, Marc

Marc Ruskin spent 20 years as an FBI Special Agent working primarily in undercover operations for which he was awarded five Commendations from the Bureau Director. A graduate of Vassar College and Cardozo Law School, prior to joining the FBI Ruskin served on the staff of U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan and as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn. Following his retirement from the FBI in 2012, he has divided his time between a law practice in New York and extended sojourns in Liaoning Province, China, where he writes and studies Mandarin.

Marc is the author of The Pretender.