taylorstevensbooks.comHome of the critically acclaimed, bestselling Vanessa Michael Munroe series by Taylor Stevens

-- CONNECT WITH ME HOME / BOOKS / AUTHOR / WRITING / FAQS / PODCAST / EVENTS / CONTACT The Informationist: Crown, 2011 Fans of Lee Child's Jack Reacher will love Vanessa Munroe--a resourceful loner who grew up overseas and has combat training, a wry sense of humor, and plenty of sex appeal. Vanessa Munroe deals in information--expensive information--working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. A Texas oil billionaire hires her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. Pulled into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the land of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that made her who she is. What the Critics Say: The Informationist | Read an excerpt of The Informationist The Innocent: Crown, 2012 Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who've searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who've managed to make a life for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn't trust them, and get Munroe on the inside. What the Critics Say: The Innocent | Read an excerpt of The Innocent The Doll: Crown, 2013 When a human trafficking ring kidnaps Munroe to transport a high-profile starlet, she's prepared to destroy those responsible--until she discovers that to save one life, she will condemn the person she loves most. Plunged into an underground world where women and girls are merchandise and a shadowy figure known as The Doll Maker controls her every move, Munroe must choose who lives, who dies, or find a way to outthink and outsmart a man who holds all the cards. In this high-octane thriller for fans of Lee Child, Barry Eisler, 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. What the Critics Say: The Doll | Read an excerpt of The Doll The Vessel: Crown, 2014 Some people were easy to find. Others took hunting and patience. The most difficult was a target who knew she was coming, and he knew. How could he not? When you backed a predator into a corner, when you took and destroyed all that she loved, when you made a game of ruining lives and sadism for you was sport, but then you failed to kill the predator: you’d better know she was coming back. This was an inviolable law. She wasn’t dead, and so she was coming for him. She had his face, had the name of a city. In the right hands, anything could be mined into so much more. She would find him. Kill him. Simple as that. The Catch: Crown, 2014 Lied to, set up for failure, and working as part of an armed escort hired to protect a freighter through Somali waters, when pirates attack, Munroe abandons her betrayers, taking the captain with her. Pursued relentlessly in a country where she has no contacts or prior connections, she discovers too late that it was never the ship or the cargo that the hijackers were after. Attacked and left for dead, working with limited resources and a damaged body, Munroe will draw on what strength and strategy she has left, use the captain as her one bargaining chip to reverse roles, become the hunter, pull together her own agenda and, if she can, walk out of this one alive. What the Critics Say: The Catch | Read an excerpt of The Catch The Mask Crown, 2015 Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and information hunter, has a reputation for getting things done: dangerous and not quite legal things, in some of the world’s deadliest places. Still healing from a brutal attack that left her near death, Munroe joins her lover, Miles Bradford, in Japan where he’s working as a security consultant protecting high-value technology from industrial espionage. In the domesticity of their routine Munroe finds long sought-after peace—until Bradford is arrested for murder. She will soon discover how far she’ll go to save him from twenty years in locked-up isolation; how many laws she’ll break when the truth seems worse than his lies; and who to trust and who she’ll kill. Because she’s a strategist and hunter with a predator’s instincts, and the man she loves has just stabbed her in the back. What the Critics Say: The Mask | Read an excerpt of The Mask Back to Top About the Author The Third Person Punchy Version: TAYLOR STEVENS is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Vanessa Michael Munroe series. Published in over twenty languages and optioned for film by James Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, the books are international boots-on-the-ground thrillers featuring a mercenary information hunter in a non-testosterone mix of Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher. Stevens came to writing fiction late. Born into an apocalyptic cult and raised in communes across the globe, she was denied an education beyond 6th grade and spent her adolescence as child labor. Stevens now calls Dallas home. In addition to writing novels, she shares extensively about the mechanics of storytelling, writing, overcoming adversity, and her journey into publishing at www.taylorstevensbooks.com/connect.php – she welcomes you to join her. The First Person Wordy Version: In an alternate universe, I spent my formative years living with parents and siblings, showing up for school and getting acquainted with HBO, Michael Jackson, neon clothes and big hair. In reality, childhood and adolescence were spent begging on city streets from Zurich to Tokyo, preparing food and washing laundry for hundreds of people, and otherwise trying to survive dreary life as a worker bee child in a communal apocalyptic cult. My innocence and scholastic education stopped completely when I was twelve-years-old. Cut off from personal family, at times under the care of sadistic individuals and without access to books or television from the outside world, imagination became a survival mechanism. As a young teenager, I secretly entertained commune children with fantastic stories that took us through time and space, until these sins were discovered by cult leaders. Several laboriously hand-written books were confiscated and burned and I was ordered on pain of--well, a whole lot of pain--never to write fiction again. The nomadic culture of the cult became an adolescent's journey across four continents and nearly two dozen countries culminating in four years living in East and West-Central Africa--this the primary setting for THE INFORMATIONIST. I was in my twenties when I broke free, and leaving everything I knew brought with the fear, a fresh beginning. Refusing to go to my grave with regrets, "what ifs," or tears over the lost years, I set out to take back what was taken from me. Through trial and error and observing the masters I taught myself the craft, and gradually the gift of storytelling returned. Learning basics that many take for granted has been a journey to be sure, but on the flip side, if I ever need to make breakfast for 150 people, I've already got that covered. Interviews Nobody's Child: Vogue Magazine Inspired by Jason Bourne: PW Talks with Taylor Stevens Interview with WordandFilm.com Who Needs a Dragon Tattoo: Austin Chronicle Audio: 2011 Art Matters with Quin Matthews on WRR101. A really good overview of the first book,...