TITLE: The Informationist (Vanessa Michael Munroe 01)
AUTHOR: Taylor Stevens
GENRE: Thriller
PUBLISHED: March 2011
RATING: ★★★★☆
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Here
Review: Enjoy reading suspense thrillers, but they all lack pizzazz; the stories and characters seem interchangeable, more of the same? Want to recharge that missing spark?
Say hello to Vanessa Michael Munroe. Vanessa is different from all the other thriller protagonists (Jack Reacher, John Rain, Mitch Rapp, Gabriel Allon, etc) in more ways than just one. But let's begin with the obvious: Vanessa is a woman. She also is beautiful, intelligent, sexy. Wily, bordering on feral... And seriously messed up.
Most protagonist heroes tend to be highly trained in various arts, martial included - but something, somewhen, results in their being a lone wolf. They run in a pack of one; independent of all, dependent on none. But for all that, lone wolf or no, each is romanticized: they are cute and cuddly lone wolfs. You want them to be your friend, bring them home to show to the family... Even though they kick, punch, maim, and kill people. Vanessa, though, is anything but cuddly. You definitely do not want her as a friend. Nor bring her home. Nor even be anywhere near her...
She pulled away. His grip tightened, and she inhaled deeply, forcing a veneer of calm. Her vision shifted to gray. Her eyes moved from his face to the veins on his neck, so easily slit, to his throat, so easily crushed, and back again. With blood pounding in her ears, she fought down the urge to kill him...
Did I say Vanessa is not easy to like? She also is ruthless and does NOT drip even a shred of sentimentality. She is all business, 100% of the time - which includes identifying, stalking, and conquering her bed-mates, before ditching them...
Munroe was seated and waiting at the appointed time, and when Bradford arrived a few minutes late, she stood to shake his hand. She wore a close-fitting black dress and four-inch heels that gave her a two-inch height advantage. Wrapped around her neck was a delicate beaded scarf that hung down against her bare back. It was an outfit that caused heads to turn, an image men desired to display on their arm as a trophy and then take home to conquer again in bed. She was as opposite from the photos and the information in her file as could possibly be managed, and it was intended as a willful statement...
Vanessa, also unlike the other thriller protagonists, has a real job; in fact, a career. Vanessa is an informationist, "a person who specializes in gathering information about developing countries for corporations." She is quite good at it too.
In fact, the quality and excellence of her intelligence brings her to the attention of Houston oilman billionaire, Richard Burbank, who wants to hire Vanessa to find his adopted daughter, lost years ago in Africa, possibly long since dead. This is not the type of assignment Vanessa typically assumes, and she is not about to change now. So, in a bid to dispense with Burbank and his request, she squeezes him for a contracted price so outrageous it qualifies as extortion. Burbank does not blink an eye.
The Informationist, the first novel in a new series, with the second already published (and two more books in the series coming soon) reads almost as fast as Vanessa's Ducati. Which does not mean that Vanessa, nor the novel, are never reflective. Vanessa is a deep thinker, but also a doer. When the book's pace slows, and it does of necessity, it never flags. Not even during the info dumps, which serve to betray Vanessa's perceptions and skills, her intelligence, and the nature and content of her reports (early on, as informationist). These info dumps highlight author Taylor Stevens's phenomenally deft auctorial skills: You could lose interest, but never do.
The Informationist is one of the few novels you read breathlessly, in a hurry to discover what happens (next), and then re-read to discover everything you missed the first go-round. In the end, the book inverts and upends the entire thriller genre into something entirely new - while keeping all the elements that caused you to read thrillers in the first place. You know, breathlessly exciting, even thrilling.