The Informationist Audiobook By Taylor Stevens cover art

The Informationist

A Thriller

 Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 1, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Join Audible for only $0.99 a month for the first 3 months, and get a bonus $20 credit for Audible.com. Bonus credit notification will be received via email.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Informationist

By: Taylor Stevens
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 1, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Get 3 months for $0.99 a month + $20 Audible credit

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 or a thrilling new talent.

©2011 Taylor Stevens (P)2011 Random House Audio Action & Adventure Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Exciting

Editorial reviews

This strikingly solid debut from Taylor Stevens is already earning some remarkably weighty comparisons, most notably to Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne trilogy and Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander series. The first in a plan for at least three books, The Informationist introduces us to Vanessa Michael Munroe. Munroe is certainly the love child of Bourne and Salander, a fierce fighting machine with a gift for technology and an ability to blend into any environment. But she also has a unique feature that most thriller protagonists can’t touch: Munroe’s past is based heavily on Stevens’ own history. Born into the controversial Children of God cult, Stevens travelled the world under conditions of harsh discipline and intense violence. Ultimately fleeing the commune but never quite able to escape the demons it awakened within her, the author endows her hero with a considerably more believable inner monologue than many similarly hardened good guys whose authors do not have the benefit of any ordeals relevant to their characters.

As Munroe runs all over central Africa trying to put down the terrifying reminders of her childhood in the region and pick up the cold trail of a missing girl, listeners encounter a dozen different local accents and several assorted languages, from German and French to Fang and Portuguese. Thankfully, Audie Award-winner and veteran narrator Hillary Huber is there to guide us through it. Her tough and sexy natural voice is a perfect fit for Munroe, and Huber’s deftly diligent rendering of each accent is an absolute delight to the ear. This international flavor is crucial to the ambience and pace of the story, and any lesser narrator would have taken all the life out of it. Though Stevens incorporates many traditional characters like the possibly nefarious Texan billionaire, the macho sidekick who can’t really keep up, and the rugged jungle gun-runner, The Informationist is brimming with fresh perspective and depth thanks to the one-two punch of Stevens’ wealth of personal experience and Huber’s professional savvy. Megan Volpert

Critic reviews

“Stevens’s blazingly brilliant debut introduces a great new action heroine, Vanessa Michael Munroe, who doesn’t have to kick over a hornet’s nest to get attention, though her feral, take-no-prisoners attitude reflects the fire of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander….Thriller fans will eagerly await the sequel to this high-octane page-turner.” ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant
Vanessa "Michael" Munroe is one of the first female characters to have it all. Most attempts at writing a woman into a leading role in espionage/spy/mystery novels always seems to be missing key elements that make her beleivable, or alternatively, feminine. Stevens' character has all of the well rounded attributes of the classic hero/anti-hero. The build up is slow but steady, and the storyline sufficient to carry the book through to its fantastic end. I hope to see more of Michael Munroe.

Heroine Extraordinaire

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this book. Very interesting and moves along at just the right pace.

Well worth it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Where does The Informationist rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

definitely one of the top listens

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Informationist?

her primal fury at the death of her would be partner Ferdinand. But more than this the intelligence that she shows throughout the book

What does Hillary Huber bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The intensity and dominance of the female protaganoist

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Credible story line with great characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I got to this book as an email was sent saying it had won the Champion of Audiobooks. Well, I wonder what the criteria was in this competition. The narration was great, so that wasn't the issue, but the story, which started off kind of fun and interesting just turned into being the most completely ridiculous and unbelievable tale I've experienced in a long time. Really not worth the time.

Champion of Audiobooks?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed the plot, with the intricacies, the twists, the intensity, and the outcome. Nicely diverting story. I’m looking forward to the next book. Narrator did an excellent job.

Captivating pipeline, good twists, nicely narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was surprised to see the negative comments about the narration. I thought the narrator was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I even kept listening after I turned off the car!! I would highly recommend this book.

Good Fast Paced Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book was captivating. Ready to hear more from this author. Narrator did very well!

Captivating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thoroughly enjoyable, though far-fetched yarn, the narrator did an awesome job! I couldn't stop listening until the very end.

Exciting Listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was intrigued by the Audible summary and although the author hasn't written much, I took a chance on this one, and it was one of the best books I have read/listened to in a while. The tough, capable heroine was believable, sort of a female Jack Reacher (who isn't so believable), which was unique. The backdrop of West Africa was fascinating. A good read, highly recommended.

WHAT A NICE SURPRISE!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
excellent, but the beginning was a bit confusing due to introduction of character as Michael, then Monroe, and Vanessa.

Vanessa Michael monroe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews