Protecting the President: The Inside Story of a Secret Service Agent

As the leading civilian authority on the U.S. Secret Service, I was most impressed with this fine book by Dennis (no relation to Tim) McCarthy (with some help from his co-author, Philip W. Smith). It reads very well, it's funny, informative, and even has a nice photo section, to boot. The Secret Service were NOT pleased with this book...further reason to get it asap! ;-) Seriously, although, in hindsight, although he received a medal, Dennis McCarthy's role that fateful day on 3/30/81 was relatively minor, especially in comparison to the bravery (and bloodshed) of Jerry Parr, Tim McCarthy, Drew Unrue, and Ray Shaddick, among others. In fact, on the video "Inside The Secret Service," an actor portraying a threat to the President is shown reading a copy of this book (!) and, if that weren't enough, a still photo of the four agents decorated for valor for their heroics---Parr, Shaddick, McCarthy, and TIM McCarthy---is depicted with DENNIS McCarthy cropped out and not even mentioned! All that aside, a fine book. Get it!!!

This book, written by a former Secret Service agentgives a great insight to what the job is like in the eyes of an Agent. McCarthy gives great detail in the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan which is interesting. This is overall a great book that I keep on reading over and over again.