Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Informationist: A Thriller
    Unavailable
    The Informationist: A Thriller
    Unavailable
    The Informationist: A Thriller
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Informationist: A Thriller

    Written by Taylor Stevens

    Narrated by Hillary Huber

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Governments pay her.
    Criminals fear her.
    Nobody sees her coming.

    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.

    The first book in the Vanessa Michael Munroe series, gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 8, 2011
    ISBN9780307878250
    Unavailable
    The Informationist: A Thriller

    Related to The Informationist

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What Next For Jared Kushner And Ivanka Trump, The Most Divisive Couple In America?

      Jan 22, 2021

      On the eve of Donald Trump’s departure from the White House, his daughter, Ivanka, released a statement light on praise for her father and heavy on praise for herself. “I came to Washington to fight for American families and I leave feeling I’ve done

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Truth Behind Lisa’s Rage

      Jan 17, 2021

      She’s been making her thoughts known – to say the least! – about everyone from Donald Trump to Duchess Meghan and even Sydneysiders who “kind of forgot” about the coronavirus pandemic. Now, insiders at Ten have revealed the truth behind 61-year-old L

      1 min read

    • Article

      Manson Inc.

      Jul 2, 2019

      The Benedict Canyon house was demolished years ago. A church looks down on the old ranch, which is now a state park. Most everyone who fell under his thrall is dead, or aging quietly in prison. None of that matters. The further events recede into his

      12 min read

    • Article

      Her Mother Successfully Ran Numbers In 1970s Detroit

      Apr 26, 2019

      Bridgett Davis writes a loving tribute to her mother, a black woman with few job options who found a solution in the numbers game.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mireya’s Third Crossing

      May 15, 2019

      Mireya’s Third Crossing
      16 min read

    • Article

      The Plot Against America

      Jan 28, 2018

      The Plot Against America
      43 min read

    • Article

      Q&A with Julia Flynn Siler, author of ‘The White Devil’s Daughters’

      Aug 29, 2019

      The journalist writes on early activists who fought sex trafficking in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Queens of Trumplandia

      Feb 10, 2017

      The Queens of Trumplandia
      15 min read

    • Article

      Inside Her Dark Web

      Jan 12, 2022

      Inside Her Dark Web
      11 min read

    • Article

      Inside Ivanka’s Dreamworld

      Apr 12, 2019

      Inside Ivanka’s Dreamworld
      21 min read

    • Article

      For Southeast Asians, Zuma S South Africa Is Disturbingly Familiar

      Jan 17, 2018

      Back in the mid-1990s when I was a young corporate lawyer, I used to do a lot of work in South Africa. At the time, the "Rainbow Nation", under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) chief and global icon Nelson Mandela was emerging fr

      4 min read

    • Article

      THE secret LIFE OF A CIA AGENT

      Dec 30, 2019

      THE secret LIFE OF A CIA AGENT
      7 min read

    • Article

      Imagining — Yet Again — A New Disney Heroine

      Mar 18, 2018

      For decades, Disney has been criticized for its passive, love-struck heroines. Do the women in Black Panther and A Wrinkle In Time finally signal real change?

      3 min read

    • Article

      On Loving And Understanding Our Communities: Journalist Melissa Montalvo In Fresno, California

      Jun 8, 2023

      "In the hands of Melissa Montalvo and other journalists, journalism is a mirror for a community with the majority of Fresno's population and a minority of its power..."

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mark’s Moral Compass

      Nov 19, 2021

      Mark’s Moral Compass
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Apprentices

      Jul 16, 2016

      The Apprentices
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Pearl Of A Biography

      May 3, 2022

      John Boessenecker, a San Francisco trial lawyer and former police officer, has also become one of the leading historians on crime, outlaws and lawmen of the Old West. A recipient of both a Spur Award from Western Writers of America and a best book aw

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Atlantic Daily: A Night at the Museum

      Apr 12, 2019

      The Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the American Museum of Natural History. Plus: What Ivanka Trump wants, Game of Thrones returns, and more

      3 min read

    Reviews for The Informationist

    3.5/5

    388 ratings58 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this tremendously, but did become frustrated at the anti- climactic end to one of the main plot lines. Also, four or five of the main characters' names begin with "B," with rapid alternation between first and last names throughout the story. Very confusing! Great heroine though, & I look forward to reading about Vanessa again.
    • 2/5
      Really wanted to be Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.....
      Was okay, but predictable.
    • 5/5
      great book!
    • 3/5
      Reading this book is like watching an action movie. You know it's not believable or reasonable, and it has lots of violence, but somehow you want to keep watching to see what happens next. That is how I felt about The Informationist. I don't think it is great literature but its kind of a guilty pleasure.
    • 1/5
      This is honestly one of the worst plotted books I've ever read. The dialogue is cheesy and the major plot points revealed at the strangest moments. For example, when the main characters are finally rescuing the woman they've been searching for the whole book, the author has the characters take the time to have her explain how she came to be in this predicament instead ofgetting her the hell out of there.
      The action is disjointed and the reader needs to take great leaps in imagination to get from point "a" to point "b". I sometimes felt like I was reading a script for an old-fashioned melodrama with ham actors reading the dialogue.
      All and all a big thumbs down.
    • 4/5
      A marvelous and entertaining thriller. Stevens' portrayal of West Central Africa is extraordinary. The plot twists are surprising, but, in retrospect, they make perfect sense. Munroe is an intriguing character, perhaps a little too perfect, but fun to watch.My biggest criticism of the book is that the typeface is awful. Too small, oddly spaced, too light.
    • 4/5
      Fast-paced adventure with an unusual, complex heroine. The author puts her right on the border of being a superhero with her amazing talent for languages, brilliant mind, and lethal fighting skills, but there's enough humanity in her to make her interesting, if not entirely believable.

      I will probably read the next book in the series, although will check it out from the library rather than purchase it.
    • 5/5
      I warmed up to this slowly but once there, wow. It was a great, great read. Vanessa Michael Munroe is hired to find a young woman in eastern Africa. This is a new author and I'm anxiously waiting for her next books. Vanessa Michael Munroe is a protagonist like none other. I hope to meet her again, too.
    • 4/5
      This is a page turner that is hard to put down. Munroe is a much more interesting and relatable character than Salander. I also loved the setting in Africa.
    • 4/5
      A tantalizing and gritty story with good character development.
    • 5/5
      Excellent. Moves quickly. Hard to put down.Vanessa Michael Monroe has been compared to Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. They are nothing alike. Vanessa is vicious, driven by nightmares and, in her own way, connected. In this book, Vanessa looks for a missing girl in Africa. Having been born in Africa, Vanessa knows the culture and the geography. Although terrifically independent, Vanessa picks up help along the way. The characters are believable and the action is thrilling. I've already borrowed the next book, The Innocent.
    • 4/5
      This is an entertaining page-turner and international thriller. Set in the heart of Africa, I loved the descriptions of the people and culture. Vanessa 'Michael' Monroe is a wonderfully flawed character. She suffers both emotional and physical scars from a traumatic childhood and battles with demons. She is persistent, a deadly killer and a collector of information, but at the same time cares deeply to those closest to her. The character of Miles Bradford is a bit weak considering his career, but he is still likeable and I liked the tension between him and Michael. I also though Fransisco Beyard was a strong character. I just wish the author had used other ways to say 'said' - replied, whispered, answered, for example. The overuse of this word really grated and I felt it spoilt an otherwise good book.
    • 3/5
      Fast paced, simple writing
    • 3/5
      I started out thinking I wasn't going to like this novel, but ended up really enjoying it. In the first few pages, there were several bits of language that seemed really clunky and poorly written, and I was about to decide I didn't want to bother trying to read something with such distractingly poor writing,when....the story reached out and grabbed me. I don't know if the technical aspects of the book got better, or whether my mind was just swept away and stopped noticing.

      In some ways, the story is the standard spy/suspense plot: Gorgeous/handsome person overcomes tragic background, trains hard, and becomes a super-skilled, super-stealthy, super-deadly, Superhero(ine). It hits all the checkpoints, from genius IQ to physical perfection to incomparable skills at martial arts. Robert Ludlum updated for the 20-teens. And yet, somehow, it captured my fancy, and I was able to overlook all that. I think it was the fact that the author spent considerable time (for this type of book) on letting the reader know how the protagonist got to be the person she had become, and why. Not with pathos - I never really felt sorry for the character despite her having undergone horrific experiences - but with a sense of "Yeah, that happened, and I've dealt with it." Kind of refreshing!

      So, not a great book (in my opinion) but an enjoyable read, and I will have an eye out for future entries in the Vanessa Michael Munroe series. I like it -- a solid three-stars.
    • 5/5
      Vanessa Michael Munroe, she prefers to go by her middle name, is a high priced investigator, with a reputation for getting information for her corporate clients that others are unable to obtain. Michael reluctantly accepts an assignment from a Houston oil billionaire: find his missing daughter who was last seen four years ago in West Africa. The price is right, five million, but Michael is reluctant to return to her childhood home. It was there she gained her linguistic and information gathering skills, but it was also the place where she gaining her skill in hand to hand combat with a knife, and to act with lightning speed when it was necessary to cut a throat. A perfect page-turning thriller, filled with suspense, intrigue and interesting characters.
    • 4/5
      On the strength of glowing reviews and publishers' over-the-top PR, I've purchased four debut novels in as many weeks, all of them categorised as 'magnificent, original, outstanding, superb' etc.

      Two of those I couldn't finish. Derivative, boring, repetitive. One I did finish but only through sheer willpower.

      But _this_ book was the real thing. An amazing debut novel coming out of nowhere. Almost perfect -- just a couple of plot holes, one major, one minor, but both easily overlooked in the adrenaline rush of page-turning action and gut-wrenching characterisation.

      What an amazing heroine Ms Stevens has created. Totally convincing and totally unforgettable.

      Easily the best thriller I've read this year.
    • 4/5
      A marvelous and entertaining thriller. Stevens' portrayal of West Central Africa is extraordinary. The plot twists are surprising, but, in retrospect, they make perfect sense. Munroe is an intriguing character, perhaps a little too perfect, but fun to watch.My biggest criticism of the book is that the typeface is awful. Too small, oddly spaced, too light.
    • 1/5
      Read the book mostly to hear a perspective of Africa. Didn't like the main character. Very tedious to listen to, but finished to find out what happened. Female ranger type, looking for a daughter, of a very rich man. Dark history to the character - not much admirable to her.
    • 4/5
      The Informationist is the ideal escapist read. It’s exciting and fast-paced with a great mystery at its core. The protagonist is more than a little over the top - she’s a brilliant, badass, emotionally damaged adrenaline junkie with ninja-like skills and a tragic past who speaks 22 languages. Ridiculous, I know, but it was so much fun.A big part of what makes the story interesting is the locale. The author truly brings the setting to life with vivid descriptions and insight into the culture, politics, and socioeconomics of Equatorial Guinea and its neighboring countries. Despite the noticeable (and slightly disturbing) lack of good-guy POC characters, I couldn’t help but enjoy myself as I explored a part of the world completely different from what I normally read.The story gets surprisingly tense and emotional towards the end. Even though I guessed who the villain was early on, there were still plenty of surprises. I could hardly put it down. I definitely recommend The Informationist for mystery and thriller fans, and perhaps some romance readers as well.
    • 2/5
      Vanessa Michael Munroe is specialist in gathering information for corporations that no one else seems to be able to get. Her past is checkered and her connections are many, and this aids her in her successful career. Hired by a Texas millionaire to find his long missing daughter is a little outside the boundaries of what she usually does, but the 5 million dollar paycheck makes it an offer she cannot turn down. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems, especially when 5 million dollars are involved.

      In my opinion there are two types of adventure thrillers. The first where you accept that it is going to be a roller coaster ride from start to finish (Matthew Reilly), you accept it for what it is and enjoy the ride. The second draws you a little deeper into the characters and has not necessarily plausible situations but less improbable ones. Ms. Stevens tries to combine the two and falls short on both. There were times in reading this book that I just wanted to climb between the pages and say enough already. That’s a frustrating feeling so I couldn’t enjoy this book as much as some others. The one saving grace for me was the strong, intelligent, no nonsense female protagonist. Seeing more and more of them cropping up in fiction and I like the trend.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely brilliant. I was uncertain about whether or not I would be as wrapped up in the first book, The Informationist, considering I started Steven’s series with the most recent book, The Doll. I was concerned I would have all the information needed and happily I was very wrong and I am ever so glad I decided to begin with Taylor Steven's first Vanessa Michael Munroe book. I highly recommend The Informationist to anyone who enjoys fast paced, well-written suspense/thriller novels. I am currently reading the second book, The Innocent and hopefully Taylor Steven’s is working on the 4th book. I am officially addicted to the series.
    • 3/5
      Wasn't what I was expecting but it did have some good points. Once I got used to the style it was enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This is a great debut thriller that introduces a strong and fascinating central character: a super-iuntuitive badass who feels something like a cross between a female Jack Reacher and a Lisbeth Salander (but with crazy knife-fighting skills).

      Author Taylor Stevens does a great job of explaining the inner workings of rubber-meets-the-road international "diplomacy" as Vanessa Munroe is hired to find a young woman who may or may not have gone missing in Coastal Africa.

      The supporting characters are engaging. The plot twists are satisfying. The action is intense. This is definitely one of those "perfect" thrillers.
    • 3/5
      I liked this thriller for the realistic setting (Africa) and the nonstop action more than anything else. It had its flaws. Fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo who enjoyed it for the fierce, damaged heroine, violence, and suspense aspects might enjoy this. Although the mystery plot is not as good, not so suspenseful in the end, and the heroine was rather over the top in her skills. I picked The Informationist up because the reviews were good and I was intrigued that the main character, 20-something Vanessa (aka "Michael") is an "informationist". She immerses herself in countries/places, acquires information from various people and sources through mad people-manipulating skills, incredible intuition, & very unbelievable foreign language abilities (22 languages! Nice). Because she's a genius, she synthesizes the info into terribly useful reports and gets paid lots. Sadly that's about as much info as we get on her methods. She's also a vicious and skilled fighter, and a little crazy. A damaged, sometimes androgynous heroine like Girl with Dragon Tattoo, whose name I forget.

      A billionaire oil company dude wants to hire her to find his stepdaughter, an 18-19 year old when she disappeared on an extended travel through various African countries 4 years ago. Previous detective work produced little. Michael doesn't do missing people, but she is lured in by the mystery and because she needs hazardous, intensive research projects to keep her demons at bay. Also, she has a history with Africa - she was raised there by missionary parents, and left relationships behind very abruptly when she left by herself as a teen. Perhaps, she feels, it's time to go back. The billionaire sends a bodyguard/mercenary along with her, and the sleuthing/informationizing commences. The quest turns very hazardous, layered and complicated in the various parts of Africa. The depictions of the politics, cities, insect/other hazards, cultural aspects, etc. are fascinating and seem very realistic (turns out the author has a similar background to her heroine, hopefully without the damage). I disliked how we finally (but not terribly far into the book) got Michael's backstory in one big infodump once she gets to Africa, after having such pleasing hints of her character's personalty and motivations up to that point. Rather anticlimatic to receive it that way. Still, it's a solid action-adventure suspense novel.
    • 5/5
      One of the best written books I've ever read and highly recommended to anyone who likes thrillers. Taunt action but paced extremely well -- the exact opposite of say a Clive Cussler novel. Excellent character development and a very well crafted plot that very slowly exposes itself without in any way being contrived with a high amount of believability. This was one of the few books that didn't either end too suddenly or have a post-mortem period after the story was over.
    • 4/5
      Plenty of action in exotic locales. Good insight into cult lifestyles--I really like this series.
    • 2/5
      The protagonist in this novel was overdone. In my opinion she was too hard, too tough, too over the top in every area. The reader from the audiobook was awful.
    • 4/5
      Summary: I think that the mystery/plot part deserves a B (some parts were a little obvious). The descriptions of Africa and the characters were A+. Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and I can't wait for more from Taylor Stevens.This is an impressive first book. I loved the character of Michael/Vanessa. She had depth, intrigue, and interesting demons in her past. While I understand why people have drawn parallels to Lisbeth Salander (troubled pasts, super abilities, misfits, written off by society, etc), I think that Michael stands on her own. Her language ability, the way she interacts with people, how she comes to terms with her past, and the way she's revealed to the reader make her very different.The author taunts the reader -- feeding them tidbits of information as they clamor for more, much like Michael taunts those she's manipulating in the book. For the reader, this means the good kind of frustration -- the kind that makes you want to keep reading. Usually, interesting characters and/or an intriguing storyline are enough to keep a reader on the hook. Stevens goes one step further. The picture she paints of Africa is fascinating. She gives just enough background information and history to enrich the story without boring the reader.Cons: 1) Miles Bradford was a bit too weak given his background as a security consultant/special forces guy. Under the guise of explaining things to Miles, the author fills the reader in on the African history/local culture part. But I wish that she'd achieved that goal some other way because his level of ignorance is a little bit unbelievable. 2) All the "B" names are easy to mix up in the beginning. 3) Some of the phrasing gets a little bit too flowery at the end of chapters. I don't need every chapter to end with a specially-crafted [over-wrought] phrase or deep thought.
    • 3/5
      This was just up and down for me. It grabbed me at first, but then I got bogged down. I just did not buy the main character's background. All the comparisons to Lisbeth Salander just made it worse for me. Got caught back up in the story but then felt like the book had a weak ending.
    • 3/5
      This book was a solid debut by Taylor Stevens. Vanessa Munroe is definitely an odd but interesting character but I don't quite agree completely with the Lisbeth Salander comparisons. In the beginning I had a hard time keeping my interest in this book but after the first 100 pages it became much more interesting to me. The ending was great and I would be interested in reading the next book in the series.