"No one questioned how she came by the information or what she had to do to get it; they simply paid."

 

Vanessa "Michael" Munroe has a special talent for finding information where others cannot.  Armed with fluency in multiple languages and a reputation for extracting highly accurate sensitive information, she has turned this into a very lucrative career, dealing this information to corporations, heads of state and private clients who are more than willing to pay her price.  Her past life as the daughter of missionaries in violent Central Africa is the demon that torments her, causing her to turn violent when backed into a corner, or when someone she loves is harmed.  When she was 14 she escaped from a horrific life, only to walk into another one at the hands of a sadistic mercenary.  But while "in training" for a drugs and guns dealer in Cameroon, she became an expert at martial arts, and not too shabby at handling a knife.  These skills, of course, also aid her in her current occupation.

 

Munroe accepts a job from a Texas oil baron, who hires her to find his daughter who disappeared four years ago in Central Africa.  The job takes her back to her old haunts in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, where she is kidnapped twice and barely gets away with her life more than once.  In addition to finding the oil-dude's daughter, she must lay to rest her demons from this savage world.

 

One reviewer referred to the character of Vanessa Munro as a "warped composite" of Lara Croft, The nameless Bride from Kill Bill, and all three Charlie's Angels.  Action-packed and fast-moving, the author has left plenty of unanswered questions and room for a sequel.  The Informationist is Taylor Stevens debut novel, and a must-read for thriller lovers.