Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Fidelity
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Fedarcyk, Janice K.
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: oottp://fedarcykconsulting.com/
CITY: Annapolis
STATE: MD
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Jan-Fedarcyk/410754271 * http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/12/janice-fedarcyk-201112 * http://fedarcykconsulting.com/about.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016001230
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016001230
HEADING: Fedarcyk, Jan
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035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10359880
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d DLC
053 _0 |a PS3606.E33
100 1_ |a Fedarcyk, Jan
375 __ |a female
400 1_ |a Fedarcyk, Janice K.
670 __ |a Fidelity, 2016: |b CIP t.p. (Jan Fedarcyk)
670 __ |a Google search 2016-01-08, https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/august/ : |b (“Janice Fedarcyk joined the FBI as a special agent in 1987. In 2007 she was named the special agent in charge (SAC) of counterterrorism in the Los Angeles Division. She was the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia Division in 2010 when she was named assistant director in charge of the New York City Field Office. She retired in August 2012”)
670 __ |a https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jan-fedarcyk#/entity (“Janice K. Fedarcyk formed Fedarcyk Consulting LLC upon her retirement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where she served for 25 years. Ms. Fedarcyk culminated her career as the Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI’s New York Office. She was the first woman selected to this assignment, and led efforts against counterterrorism and counterintelligence threats; insider trading on Wall Street; Somali piracy; and, accelerated the growth of the cyber program to confront malicious hacking and sophisticated intrusions; location: Arlington” [Va.])
670 __ |a e-mail 2016-01-08 fr. M. Rucci, Simon & Schuster : |b (“Yes, I can confirm . . . Janice K. Fedarcyk’s identity here”)
PERSONAL
Born c. 1958; married; husband’s name Mike.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Consultant and writer. Began career working for the Reno, Nevada, police K-9 unit; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 1987-2012, retired, worked as a field agent and as the assistant director in charge the New York office, previously worked in Los Angeles, CA, Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, PA.; then Fedarcyk Consulting LLC, founder. Also served as the Office of Domestic National Intelligence domestic national intelligence representative for the New York region.
AVOCATIONS:Running marathons and riding in equestrian events.
AWARDS:U.S. Government Presidential Rank Award; the Frederick D. Suydam Award for excellence in law enforcement; the Respect for Law Alliance Federal Law Enforcement Leader Award.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Jan Fedarcyk spent twenty-five years working for the Federal Bureau of Investigtation (FBI). She was the first woman to lead the FBI’s New York Office, the largest of the FBI’s offices. Fedarcyk oversaw efforts against counterterrorism and counterintelligence threats, insider trading on Wall Street, and Somali piracy. She also worked on the program to accelerate the growth of the FBI’s cyber program to confront malicious hacking and sophisticated intrusions. Upon retiring in 2012, Fedarcyk started her own security consulting business.
Fedarcyk is also author of the novel Fidelity. Drawing from her own insider knowledge of the FBI, Fedarcyk introduces readers to FBI Agent Kay Malloy, who is working in the Violent Crime Program in Baltimore, Maryland. Malloy became interested in law enforcement due to the brutal murder of her humanitarian parents in Columbia when Kay and her brother, Christopher, were still very young. The siblings ended up being raised by their godparents. While Kay has become a respected FBI agent, Christopher has had a more difficult time finding his way, including an on-and-off drug habit and having several encounters with law enforcement.
Kay ends up getting kudos for her work in an investigation that led to the arrest of a gang boss in Baltimore. “Malloy is a strong, confident woman in a male-dominated organization, and her success is recognized, sending her to a counterintelligence office in New York,” wrote Free Lance-Star Online cotributor Sandy Mahaffey. In New York Kay is assigned to work in Russian counter intelligence. Kay initially has a hard time adjusting, thanks in part to her boss, Susan Jeffries, nicknamed “Frowny,” who does to seem to like Kay.
Kay’s job also includes initially combing through the FBI’s massive database concerning Russian spying. Furthermore, there are hours and hours of boring surveillance duty. To Kay’s surprise, Susan offers her some friendly advice, namely find something to pursue outside of work to make up for what has become a tedious job. Kay decides to take up playing paintball, the same hobby as Susan.
Things on the job begin to get more exciting when Kay is assigned to the Black Bear program. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believes there is a mole in their Washington, DC headquarters who is supplying information to the Russians and has resulted in the loss of three double agents. Kay sees the assignment as a way to prove her worth to her boss, a legendary agent and one of the few women to rise to such a high-ranking position in the FBI, She also needs to establish herself with other her male colleagues.
Before long, however, Kay finds herself being blackmailed by the Russians because of her devotion to Christopher. In addition, Kay begins to think that someone or some people in the FBI office are out to betray her. Meanwhile, the Black Bear program has been trying to recruit double agents from Russia. Despite being told by “Frowny” that patience is the key to counterintelligence, Kay becomes increasingly frustrated, especially when a potential “asset” is taken away by the Russians as Kay helplessly looks on.
Several reviewers noted that Fidelity may be the first in a series since the novel’s title is the first word in the FBI’s motto, Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity. “Fedarcyk keeps all the right balls in the air while painting an interesting and accurate portrayal of how the FBI and the world of counterintelligence work,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Calling Fidelity a “compelling debut,” a Publishers Weekly contributor went on to note that the author “complements her perceptive study of the driven Kay with vivid details about international politics.” Reviewingtheevidence.com contributor Susan Hoover felt that some parts of the novel did not seem to reflect the reality of working for the FBI and in counterintelligence. Nevertheless, Hoover praised the novel’s ending as “a very satisfying bang-up turning of the tables.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2016, review of Fidelity.
Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2016, review of Fidelity, p. 42.
ONLINE
Fedarcyk Consulting Web site, http://fedarcykconsulting.com/ (April 30, 2017).
Free Lance-Star Online, http://www.fredericksburg.com/ (November 26, 2016), Sandy Mahaffey, “Book Review: Author’s Insider Knowledge Provides Insight, Authenticity to FBI Thriller.”
Reviewingtheevidence.com, http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (May 17, 2017), Susan Hoover, review of Fidelity.
Vanity Fair Online, http://www.vanityfair.com/ (April 30, 2017), Byan Burrough, “The F.B.I.’s First Lady.”*
Janice K. Fedarcyk formed Fedarcyk Consulting LLC upon her retirement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where she served for 25 years. Ms. Fedarcyk culminated her career as the Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI’s New York Office, the largest of the FBI’s field offices and the first woman to hold this position. Under her leadership, Ms. Fedarcyk led efforts against counterterrorism and counterintelligence threats; insider trading on Wall Street; Somali piracy; and accelerated the growth of the cyber program to confront malicious hacking and sophisticated intrusions. Ms. Fedarcyk served as the Office of Domestic National Intelligence (ODNI) Domestic National Intelligence Representative for the New York region.
Ms. Fedarcyk is a recipient of the prestigious U.S. Government Presidential Rank Award; the Frederick D. Suydam Award for excellence in law enforcement; and the Respect for Law Alliance Federal Law Enforcement Leader Award as well as having been named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a Woman of Distinction.
THE F.B.I.’S FIRST LADY
BY BRYAN BURROUGH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL PARRY
DECEMBER 2011
Janice Fedarcyk in New York City.
The F.B.I.’s New York office, located on the high floors of a federal building in downtown Manhattan, has long been the bureau’s largest, home to more than a thousand special agents with responsibility for investigating everyone from Brooklyn Mafia families and Wall Street fraudsters to Somali pirates and branches of al-Qaeda. Not only is its new chief, Janice K. Fedarcyk, the first woman to head this flagship office, but by doing so she has quietly become the highest-ranking woman in “the field.” It’s been a long time coming, both for the F.B.I., which began accepting women as field agents only in 1972, and for Fedarcyk, a petite, crisp 53-year-old who grew up a nomadic “navy brat” and began her law-enforcement career leading dogs in the Reno, Nevada, police K-9 unit. She joined the F.B.I. in 1987, investigating street gangs in Los Angeles, missing children in Baltimore, and terrorists from the Washington, D.C., headquarters, before taking over first the Philadelphia field office and now New York. Killing Osama bin Laden, she says, doesn’t make her job keeping America safe much easier. “He was only one piece of the puzzle, and there’s much work left to be done. We’re nowhere close to being at the end of this fight.” In what little spare time she enjoys, Fedarcyk runs marathons, rides in the occasional equestrian event, and wanders museums with her husband. Does she still carry a pistol? She smiles but politely declines to answer. Ah, Janice, you had us at “Freeze!”
Upon her retirement in 2012 Jan Fedarcyk was the only woman to lead the FBI’s prestigious New York Office as Assistant Director in Charge. Fidelity is Jan’s first novel, drawing upon her twenty-five years of experience as an FBI Special Agent. A Maryland native, she resides in the Annapolis area with her husband, Mike.
Print Marked Items
Jan Fedarcyk: FIDELITY
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 15, 2016): From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jan Fedarcyk FIDELITY Simon & Schuster (Adult Fiction) 25.00 10, 11 ISBN: 978-1-4767-3386-9
Fedarcyk, former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office, combines an insider's sense of
authenticity with a singular attention to detail in this debut novel.Russian double agents are disappearing, and
it’s obvious there’s a mole in the CIA, so the agency takes its problem to the FBI’s
counterintelligence unit to help find the leak. That’s where FBI Special Agent Kay Malloy comes in. Attached
to the Baltimore field office, where she mostly works drug gangs with Torres, her partner of 18 months, Malloy lets a
drug kingpin slip through her hands only to end up in a gunfight with him later. Afterward, she’s transferred to
the New York counterintelligence unit, supervised by a woman known to most as “Frowny.” Susan
Jeffries, legendary head of the branch, sets up a team to look into the CIA’s mole, and before too long, Black
Bear, as the operation’s known, begins to bear fruit. But while the Black Bear project attempts to recruit a
Russian operative in order to identify the mole inside the CIA, the Russians are themselves targeting Malloy through
her brother, Christopher. Fedarcyk keeps all the right balls in the air while painting an interesting and accurate portrayal
of how the FBI and the world of counterintelligence work. Although a handsome spy is dropped in, there are no trickedout
Aston Martins, only a portrayal of the day-to-day drudgery agents must endure sifting through mounds of data,
looking for anomalies. Fedarcyk’s prose proves both engaging and easy to read, and her characters are welldrawn.
But while Malloy connects crucial investigative dots, the author skimps on details in the final showdown,
leaving readers guessing as to how the investigation in the end progressed from point A to point Z. An absorbing read
that feels unfinished; and since the FBI’s motto is Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity, it’s a sure bet
there’s a reason.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Jan Fedarcyk: FIDELITY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2016. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463216121&it=r&asid=3b8e272bf65c53b8eda69935ee94a940.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463216121
Fidelity
Fidelity
Publishers Weekly.
263.32 (Aug. 8, 2016): p42. From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Fidelity
Jan Fedarcyk. Simon & Schuster, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4767-3386-9
A successful operation against a drug dealer in Baltimore gets ambitious FBI agent Kay Malloy, the heroine of retired
FBI agent Fedarcyk's compelling debut, promoted to the bureau's counterintelligence unit in New York City, where,
much to her disappointment, her duties are mostly deskbound. Kay believes that an assignment to investigate the
disappearance of several Russian double agents will prove her skills to her colleagues and her legendary supervisor,
Susan Jeffries, one of the few women to hold such a high position. The Russians target Kay for blackmail, as they have
other agents, but the only skeleton in her closet is an unfailing devotion to her older brother, Christopher, a screwup
who sometimes uses drugs. Meanwhile, Kay must navigate a swamp of betrayal within the agency. Fedarcyk, the sole
woman to have headed the FBI's New York office as assistant director in charge, complements her perceptive study of
the driven Kay with vivid details about international politics and the bureau's inner workings. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Fidelity." Publishers Weekly, 8 Aug. 2016, p. 42. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460900349&it=r&asid=4f057da6dd401ec729477d5231f8b2b1.
Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460900349
EDITOR'S PICK
Book review: Author's insider knowledge provides insight, authenticity to FBI thriller
By SANDY MAHAFFEY THE FREE LANCE–STAR Nov 26, 2016 (0)
Fidelity
Fidelity
Jan Fedarcyk was the first female assistant director in charge of the New York office of the FBI. Her insider knowledge of the life of an agent gives “Fidelity” an air of authenticity, a sense that this is the way it would really happen. Her work brings to mind the successes of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell—talented writers using their other careers as the backdrop for riveting plots and fascinating protagonists.
Kay Malloy is working in the Violent Crime Program in Baltimore when readers first meet her. Her career choice seemed a natural fit to honor her parents, whose lives devoted to humanitarian causes were cut short in a brutal murder. She and her brother, Christopher, were lovingly raised by their godparents, but her brother has struggled to find a career path and had a number of run-ins with the law.
Malloy is a strong, confident woman in a male-dominated organization, and her success is recognized, sending her to a counterintelligence office in New York, where she is assigned to search for a mole whose leaks have caused the deaths of Russian government double agents.
The job is not all exciting chases and confrontations, there is much tedious work searching on the computer for leads.
Fedarcyk’s attention provides a realistic, accurate view of the life of the agents. She keeps things moving quickly enough to never lose the reader’s interest. Personal struggles blend with professional, giving a sense of the ever present stress, pressure and urgency of their work.
“Fidelity” is the first in a series of Kay Malloy books. I am looking forward to the next one. Jan Fedarcyk has definitely chosen the right path since her retirement from a 25-year career with the FBI.
Sandy Mahaffey
is former Books editor at The Free Lance–Star.
FIDELITY
by Jan Fedarcyk
Simon & Schuster, October 2016
306 pages
$25.00
ISBN: 1476733864
Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada
After taking down a gang boss in the murderous streets of Baltimore almost single-handedly, FBI agent Kay Molloy is transferred to Russian counterintelligence in New York City. She begins to learn the ropes: the endless hours of staring at the matrix – the massive FBI database, the cold treatment by her boss, Susan Jeffries, dubbed Frowny by her colleagues, and the hours of surveillance.
Kay is warned by her boss to get a hobby, that counterintelligence is a marathon, not a sprint, and the job will eat you up. Frowny's hobby, it turns out, is paintball. Kay has nothing but her work, and her family – her aimless brother and her godparents who raised them after Kay's parents were assassinated in Columbia twelve years earlier.
It does not take long for the boys on the other side to spot Kay's weakness. Meanwhile Kay is assigned to Black Bear. The CIA has recently lost three double agents in Russia and now suspects there is a mole in their Washington headquarters. With the help of the FBI and its internal focus, they hope to bring this mole to ground.
Jan Fedarcyk knows her stuff, having served as Assistant Director in charge of the FBI's New York office for 25 years. Like baseball, she knows there are more outs than hits. Poor Kay is party to several outs and when she loses the possible "asset" who is grabbed by the other side right in front of her eyes, she wonders when the hits will come.
This is Fedarcyk's first novel. She does an excellent job of weaving a number of very complicated plots into the narrative, while keeping them clear in the reader's mind. She understands the psychology of turncoats well - not altogether bad people, but weak and exploited by those who understand weakness. She understands the long game, as the KGB morphs into the SVR, as the USSR morphs into present day Russia.
There are moments in the novel that don't ring true. How can Kay's relationship with Andrew, the CIA blue-flamer end simply because he is moved back to Washington? And neither seems upset by this. Of course, Andrew is something of a mystery and I suspect that he will return in the next Kay Molloy novel. After all, Fidelity, the title, is also the first of the three words in the FBI motto. Certainly a setup for at least two more stories with Kay, I hope.
FIDELITY ends with a very satisfying bang-up turning of the tables, as Tom, the Russian illegal, discovers he's not as smart as he thought he was. But true to Frowny's belief that "counterintelligence is a game in which the field, the players, even the outcome, never becomes entirely clear," even the reader is not sure what just happened.
Let us hope Fedarcyk returns with Bravery and Integrity, the other parts of the FBI motto.
§ Susan Hoover is a playwright, independent producer and retired college English teacher. She lives in Nova Scotia.