The Catch: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel

Description

Vanessa Michael Munroe, the informationist, chameleon, and hunter who has built her life on a reputation for getting things done-often dangerous and not-quite-legal things-returns in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling series by Taylor Stevens. In the wake of going head-to-head with international sex traffickers in The Doll, Munroe has retreated to Djibouti, where, while passing as a man, she finds work as an interpreter for a small, private, maritime security company. Pressed into duty at sea by her boss, Leo, Munroe discovers she is part of a gunrunning operation and she wants no part in protecting the crew or cargo. When the ship is attacked by pirates off the Somali coast, Munroe escapes and takes the unconscious captain with her to get answers. Leo's wife, Amber Marie, the only person Munroe has cared about since she arrived in Africa, is desperate when Leo goes missing along with the rest of the hijacked crew, so Munroe agrees to try to find him for Amber Marie's sake. She soon realizes it's not the cargo or the ship or the crew that the hijackers were after- they want the captain. On the run, wounded, without connections or resources, and with the life of the captain as bait and bartering chip, Munroe believes that the only way to save Leo, assuming he's still alive, is to hijack the ship back.

TAYLOR STEVENS is the New York Times bestselling and Barry Award-winning author of The Informationist, The Innocent, and The Doll, all featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe. The series has been published in twenty languages. 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 and is currently at work on the next Munroe adventure.

"A great page-turning choice for a read-it-in-one-sitting airplane ride or lazy afternoon on the back porch...The novel transports readers to another world, giving a solid dose of action-adventure and a kick-butt female protagonist. The Catch...is a great escape." -Star-Telegram "The writer makes her protagonist more empathetic and likable than ever - startlingly so, because the Michael (her preferred name) Munroe we see here is at her most focused, ruthless and emotionally distant. It's a difficult balancing act, but one that Stevens pulls off with her usual wit, precision and grace... [An] exceptional novel." -Dallas Morning News "Think Catwoman in plain clothes. Lisbeth Salander sans dragon tattoo. Jack Reacher with an extra X-chromosome. Whatever-Vanessa Michael Munroe has to be among the cleverest, fightingest and all-around baddest heroines in contemporary suspense fiction. ...A straight-up adventure tale about a woman who thinks on her feet (that is, when she is not using them to kick bad-guy booty) and always stays one step ahead of her adversaries. My prediction: This will be one of the summer's most popular beach reads." -BookPage "This writer is fabulous and the characterizations are thrilling... You get what you see, and that includes the cleverness, the grit, and the pain. A definite keeper!" -Suspense Magazine "Taylor Stevens continues her saga of Vanessa Michael Munroe, begun in The Informationist, with a fast-paced action thriller that vividly shows why Munroe is probably the best new action hero." -Huntington News "Thriller fans will immediately be sucked into this life-or-death tale as Stevens's fast-paced plot and indomitable and justice-driven heroine keep the pages turning." -Library Journal "This action-adventure thriller moves along at breakneck speed with the requisite violence peppering most of the pages. Munroe is a smart, fiercely strong, yet damaged woman in the vein of Lisbeth Salander, and she could hold her own with Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne or Barry Eisler's Rain. For fans of high-energy action." -Booklist "Munroe makes for an intriguing action hero, and the fight scenes are refreshingly stark and well paced." -Publishers Weekly "Stevens resurrects Vanessa "Michael" Munroe, her dangerous, androgynous antihero, for another dark adventure...Fans of the series like that Stevens' writing takes them to little-known places and offers glimpses into the day-to-day life of the economically developing world. Stevens continues her spare, gritty approach to storytelling, which has made Munroe one of the genre's most compelling characters, in this latest installment of the haunted heroine's troubled life." -Kirkus