Maura Conlon-McIvor Press Room

"For Immediate Release"

FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father's Code
By Maura Conlon-McIvor

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) -- FBI GIRL: HOW I LEARNED TO CRACK MY FATHER'S CODE follows the journey of a young girl eager to penetrate the world of her father, Joe Conlon, a stoic, Hoover-era FBI agent with secrets of his own. Set in the Los Angeles suburbs in the late 1960s and 70s, the memoir evokes an era of tumultuous change mirrored in the Conlon household with the birth of the fifth child, a Down's syndrome baby whose innocence captivates badge-wearing, gun-toting, cigarette-smoking Joe Conlon, and whose presence becomes a tipping point for the family. Young Maura, hoping to catch her father's attention, transforms herself into an FBI Girl in training. She plows through Nancy Drew mysteries, whips up special agent wardrobes, designs a customized log for spying on neighborhood vehicles, and navigates the twists and turns of her father's strange, silent ways. Only after a murder in the family does she find the courage to confront her father using a new voice. Full of pathos, integrity and humor, FBI Girl is about family bonds, the trials that test them, and the triumphs that make them stronger.

Alexandra Fuller, author of the New York Times bestseller Don't Let's Go to the Dog's Tonight, says, "FBI Girl is a gorgeous, sumptuous book. Conlon-McIvor takes a subject (herself and her family) that might have sunk in other hands, beats egg-whites under her words and the whole thing rises like a dream. It's a love story for her people and for a time and place. Read it."

Maura Conlon-McIvor was born in Los Angeles, California, and has worked in various regions around the country as editor and journalist. She started early drafts of FBI Girl soon after her father gave all the correspondence he received from J. Edgar Hoover during his 27-year tenure with the Bureau. She has worked as a journalist and magazine editor, served as project editor for the publishing arm of ProLiteracy Worldwide, an international adult literacy organization, and as executive producer in the visual/special effects industry. She received her B.A. in Communication Studies from The University of Iowa, and her M.A. in Literature from Wake Forest University, where she wrote on the Irish poets. She holds a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California and divides her time between the Pacific Northwest and New York.