The Doll: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel

There's not much that can make heavily armed information specialist Vanessa ­ Michael Munroe do something she doesn't want to do. But kidnapping and torturing one of her inner circle may be one of them. When a human trafficker known as the Dollmaker needs a high-profile doll (i.e., kidnapped young woman) delivered to a client, he settles an old score by forcing Michael to choose between the girl and her old friend. To save her friend's life, Michael has two days to get the doll from Croatia to the client in Italy. She must arrive unharmed no bruises, no drugs. Emotionally and physically scarred by her own past with a man who wanted to own and control her, Michael has taken justice into her own hands more than once and has proven herself capable of anything. Following The Informationist (2011) and The Innocent (2011), Stevens' third Munroe book is another international action-adventure with a Bourne-like avenging angel at the reins.--Keefe, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist

Good and bad deeds alike have a high price, as dramatically shown in Stevens's harrowing third Vanessa Michael Munroe novel (after 2012's The Innocent). A sex trafficker known as the Doll Maker forces Munroe to deliver a nubile starlet to the starlet's purchaser by taking Munroe's best friend, Logan, hostage. Controlled at every step by the Doll Maker's nephew, Valon Lumani, she transports the "doll" from Croatia to Monaco while trying to balance the lives in her hands. Back in Texas, Miles Bradford, Munroe's lover and sometime employer, seeks Logan, Munroe, answers, and revenge as new hostages are targeted. At story's end, none of the players is left unscathed. Trafficker-in-training Lumani is interestingly conflicted, and Munroe remains as compelling as ever: violent yet protective of innocence, imprisoned by not only her past but also the choices she has made in response to it, and painfully conscious of her closeness to sanity's edge. 5-city author tour. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Associates. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vanessa Michael Munroe is facing a moral dilemma. Snatched by the shadowy Doll Maker, head of an international sex trafficking organization, she must transport Hollywood starlet Neeva Eckridge, daughter of a Silicon Valley mogul and a U.S. senator, to an important client in order to protect the lives of people she loves, first among them her dear friend Logan. And the "package," who's furiously fighting her captivity, must be delivered unbruised, undrugged, and costumed as a doll. As Munroe sets out on her task, her lover and employer, Miles Bradford, head of high-tech Calypso Security in Dallas, works to find the kidnapped and brutalized Logan and determine who's behind the operation. VERDICT Prolific linguist and exquisitely honed killer Munroe is no less effective here for still suffering from past trauma as recounted in The Informationist and The Innocent. Stevens's third series outing is another brisk, adrenaline-fueled adventure with a trail of bodies and a damaged protagonist who may live to kill another day. For readers of suspense with a dark edge.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In Stevens' third lean and mean thriller featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe, an "informationist" with a scary dark streak who specializes in recovering kidnapping victims, she is forced by an Eastern European sex trafficker to deliver an American teen to a European buyer. If Michael doesn't comply with the demands of the Doll Maker, so called because he has the kidnapped girls made up to look like dolls, he will kill her closest friend and partner in special ops, Logan, whom he also has abducted. As her boss and lover, Dallas security consultant Miles Bradford, orchestrates efforts to save her, Michael improvises a scheme to escape the Doll Maker's control and free the girl. That involves escaping the trafficker's surveillance of her every move as she drives from Croatia to Italy and thwarting his adopted son, who is following her and can kill her sniper-style at any time. She also must prevent the tiny but cocky girl, Neeva, an actress who has fallen under her influence, from putting herself in harm's way. This book is strongly influenced by the existential bare-bones approach of Lee Child's Reacher books, and its brilliant but damaged heroine, the estranged daughter of missionaries, owes much to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But Stevens stamps the novel with her own bleak, punishing, bullet-flying outlook. With the exception of a scene or two between Michael and Neeva, the tone is grim--no lighthearted relief here, especially from the stony Bradford. Out of that gloomy intensity comes edgy suspense. In Stevens' powerfully contained follow-up to The Innocent (2011), there is no release for the tormented heroine, only license to live another day.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

There's not much that can make heavily armed "information specialist" Vanessa ­"Michael" Munroe do something she doesn't want to do. But kidnapping and torturing one of her inner circle may be one of them. When a human trafficker known as the Dollmaker needs a high-profile doll (i.e., kidnapped young woman) delivered to a client, he settles an old score by forcing Michael to choose between the girl and her old friend. To save her friend's life, Michael has two days to get the doll from Croatia to the client in Italy. She must arrive unharmed—no bruises, no drugs. Emotionally and physically scarred by her own past with a man who wanted to own and control her, Michael has taken justice into her own hands more than once and has proven herself capable of anything. Following The Informationist (2011) and The Innocent (2011), Stevens' third Munroe book is another international action-adventure with a Bourne-like avenging angel at the reins. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Vanessa Michael Munroe is facing a moral dilemma. Snatched by the shadowy Doll Maker, head of an international sex trafficking organization, she must transport Hollywood starlet Neeva Eckridge, daughter of a Silicon Valley mogul and a U.S. senator, to an important client in order to protect the lives of people she loves, first among them her dear friend Logan. And the "package," who's furiously fighting her captivity, must be delivered unbruised, undrugged, and costumed as a doll. As Munroe sets out on her task, her lover and employer, Miles Bradford, head of high-tech Calypso Security in Dallas, works to find the kidnapped and brutalized Logan and determine who's behind the operation. VERDICT Prolific linguist and exquisitely honed killer Munroe is no less effective here for still suffering from past trauma as recounted in The Informationist and The Innocent. Stevens's third series outing is another brisk, adrenaline-fueled adventure with a trail of bodies and a damaged protagonist who may live to kill another day. For readers of suspense with a dark edge.—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Good and bad deeds alike have a high price, as dramatically shown in Stevens's harrowing third Vanessa Michael Munroe novel (after 2012's The Innocent). A sex trafficker known as the Doll Maker forces Munroe to deliver a nubile starlet to the starlet's purchaser by taking Munroe's best friend, Logan, hostage. Controlled at every step by the Doll Maker's nephew, Valon Lumani, she transports the "doll" from Croatia to Monaco while trying to balance the lives in her hands. Back in Texas, Miles Bradford, Munroe's lover and sometime employer, seeks Logan, Munroe, answers, and revenge as new hostages are targeted. At story's end, none of the players is left unscathed. Trafficker-in-training Lumani is interestingly conflicted, and Munroe remains as compelling as ever: violent yet protective of innocence, imprisoned by not only her past but also the choices she has made in response to it, and painfully conscious of her closeness to sanity's edge. 5-city author tour. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Associates. (June)