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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Mar 2011, 320 pages
Paperback:
Oct 2011, 336 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
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Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent.
Vanessa "Michael" 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. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back.
Until now.
A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It's not her usual line of work, but she can't resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands 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 she's tried for so long to forget.
Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.
Prologue
West Central Africa
Four years ago
This is where he would die.
On the ground, palms flat to the earth, fighting against thirst and
the urge to drink from a mud-filled puddle. Blood was in his hair, on
his clothes, and, beneath dirt and grime, it painted his face. It wasn't his
blood. And he could still taste it.
They would find him. Kill him. They would cut him to pieces just
as they had Mel, maybe Emily too. He ached to know that she was still
alive and heard only the quiet noise of the deep forest broken by the
strike of machetes against foliage.
Filtered light escaped the rain forest's canopy, playing tricks with
shadows. The sound of the blades carried long in the stillness, bouncing,
making it difficult to gauge direction.
Even if he did escape his pursuers, he wouldn't survive a night in the
jungle. He needed to move, to run, to continue east until he crossed the
border, though he no longer had a bearing on where that was. He willed
...
Belying the book's title and high-tech looking cover, Taylor Stevens's debut work, The Informationist, is a decidedly low-tech, old fashioned action-adventure novel. You won't find exotic weaponry or computer hardware here; characters are dispatched with knives and the quick twist of a head, and information is gathered through interviews and keen deduction instead of via an Internet search. The traditional format employed here works very well set against the milieu of equatorial Africa...continued
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(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Michael Palmer, author of The Last Surgeon
A terrific thriller with piercing tension, chest-tightening adventure, and a one-of-a-kind heroine I've continued to think about long after finishing the last page. Taylor Stevens is a born storyteller. I couldn't put The Informationist down. Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Ice Cold
An utterly smashing debut, starring an unforgettable heroine who could go toe to toe with Lisbeth Salander - and claw her way on top. One of the best thrillers of the year!
Cameroon's official name is the Republic of Cameroon. It's located on the western coast of Africa on the Bight of Biafra, which is part of the Gulf of Guinea. At 183,568 square miles, the country is a little larger than the state of California. It's been called "Africa in miniature" by the government due to its geological and cultural diversity, and within its borders one can find beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests and savannas. The climate, too, is varied, ranging from tropical along its western coastline to semiarid and hot in the north. The country is also known as the "hinge of Africa," as a geologic fault line runs through it, and the area is, consequently, very seismically active. Mt. Cameroon, the highest mountain in ...
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