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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Stevens, T. 2013 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"A heroine every bit as provocative as Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander." - The Dallas Morning News
Haunted by a life of violence and as proficient with languages as she is with knives, Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and hunter, has built her life on a reputation for getting things done--dangerous and often not-quite-legal things. Born to missionary parents in lawless Africa, taken under the tutelage of gunrunners, and tortured by one of the jungle's most brutal men, Munroe was forced to do whatever it took to stay alive.
The ability to survive, fight, adapt, and blend has since taken her across the globe on behalf of corporations, heads of state, and the few private clients who can afford her unique brand of expertise, and these abilities have made her enemies.
On a busy Dallas street, Munroe is kidnapped by an unseen opponent and thrust into an underground world where women and girls are merchandise and a shadowy figure known as The Doll Maker controls her every move. While trusted friends race to unravel where she is and why she was taken, everything pivots on one simple choice: Munroe must use her unique set of skills to deliver a high-profile young woman into the same nightmare that she once endured, or condemn to torture and certain death the one person she loves above all else.
Driven by the violence that has made her what she is, cut off from help, and with attempts to escape predicted and prevented, Munroe will hunt for openings, for solutions, and a way to strike back at a man who holds all the cards. Because only one thing is certain: she cannot save everyone.
In this high-octane thriller for fans of Lee Child, Stieg Larsson, and Robert Ludlum's Bourne trilogy, Vanessa Michael Munroe will have to fight fast, smart and furiously to overcome a dangerous nemesis and deliver her trademark brand of justice.
Author Notes
TAYLOR STEVENS is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Informationist and The Innocent , both featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe. Her novels have received critical acclaim, have been published in twenty languages, and The Informationist has been optioned for film by James Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. Raised in communes across the globe and denied an education beyond the sixth grade, Stevens broke free of the Children of God and now lives in Texas, where she is currently at work on the next Munroe adventure.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Good and bad deeds alike have a high price, as dramatically shown in Stevens's harrowing third Vanessa Michael Munroe novel (after 2012's The Innocent). A sex trafficker known as the Doll Maker forces Munroe to deliver a nubile starlet to the starlet's purchaser by taking Munroe's best friend, Logan, hostage. Controlled at every step by the Doll Maker's nephew, Valon Lumani, she transports the "doll" from Croatia to Monaco while trying to balance the lives in her hands. Back in Texas, Miles Bradford, Munroe's lover and sometime employer, seeks Logan, Munroe, answers, and revenge as new hostages are targeted. At story's end, none of the players is left unscathed. Trafficker-in-training Lumani is interestingly conflicted, and Munroe remains as compelling as ever: violent yet protective of innocence, imprisoned by not only her past but also the choices she has made in response to it, and painfully conscious of her closeness to sanity's edge. 5-city author tour. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Associates. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In Stevens' third lean and mean thriller featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe, an "informationist" with a scary dark streak who specializes in recovering kidnapping victims, she is forced by an Eastern European sex trafficker to deliver an American teen to a European buyer. If Michael doesn't comply with the demands of the Doll Maker, so called because he has the kidnapped girls made up to look like dolls, he will kill her closest friend and partner in special ops, Logan, whom he also has abducted. As her boss and lover, Dallas security consultant Miles Bradford, orchestrates efforts to save her, Michael improvises a scheme to escape the Doll Maker's control and free the girl. That involves escaping the trafficker's surveillance of her every move as she drives from Croatia to Italy and thwarting his adopted son, who is following her and can kill her sniper-style at any time. She also must prevent the tiny but cocky girl, Neeva, an actress who has fallen under her influence, from putting herself in harm's way. This book is strongly influenced by the existential bare-bones approach of Lee Child's Reacher books, and its brilliant but damaged heroine, the estranged daughter of missionaries, owes much to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But Stevens stamps the novel with her own bleak, punishing, bullet-flying outlook. With the exception of a scene or two between Michael and Neeva, the tone is grim--no lighthearted relief here, especially from the stony Bradford. Out of that gloomy intensity comes edgy suspense. In Stevens' powerfully contained follow-up to The Innocent (2011), there is no release for the tormented heroine, only license to live another day.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
There's not much that can make heavily armed information specialist Vanessa Michael Munroe do something she doesn't want to do. But kidnapping and torturing one of her inner circle may be one of them. When a human trafficker known as the Dollmaker needs a high-profile doll (i.e., kidnapped young woman) delivered to a client, he settles an old score by forcing Michael to choose between the girl and her old friend. To save her friend's life, Michael has two days to get the doll from Croatia to the client in Italy. She must arrive unharmed no bruises, no drugs. Emotionally and physically scarred by her own past with a man who wanted to own and control her, Michael has taken justice into her own hands more than once and has proven herself capable of anything. Following The Informationist (2011) and The Innocent (2011), Stevens' third Munroe book is another international action-adventure with a Bourne-like avenging angel at the reins.--Keefe, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Vanessa Michael Munroe is facing a moral dilemma. Snatched by the shadowy Doll Maker, head of an international sex trafficking organization, she must transport Hollywood starlet Neeva Eckridge, daughter of a Silicon Valley mogul and a U.S. senator, to an important client in order to protect the lives of people she loves, first among them her dear friend Logan. And the "package," who's furiously fighting her captivity, must be delivered unbruised, undrugged, and costumed as a doll. As Munroe sets out on her task, her lover and employer, Miles Bradford, head of high-tech Calypso Security in Dallas, works to find the kidnapped and brutalized Logan and determine who's behind the operation. VERDICT Prolific linguist and exquisitely honed killer Munroe is no less effective here for still suffering from past trauma as recounted in The Informationist and The Innocent. Stevens's third series outing is another brisk, adrenaline-fueled adventure with a trail of bodies and a damaged protagonist who may live to kill another day. For readers of suspense with a dark edge.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.