The Innocent

Starred review from October 24, 2011
In Stevens’s impressive second Vanessa Michael Munroe novel (after 2010’s The Informationist), Vanessa travels to Buenos Aires in search of a 14-year-old girl, Hannah, who was kidnapped eight years earlier by her mother’s boyfriend and hidden among a religious cult known as the Chosen. Aided by security expert Miles Bradford, Vanessa frees Hannah after infiltrating the compound where the girl was being held, setting off a volatile chain of complications. The gripping plot runs on adrenaline as much as does Vanessa, who unleashes her violent tendencies when the powerless are threatened. The neglected daughter of American missionaries, Vanessa knows too well the mind control a closed society exerts over its members. Her career as “an informationist,” specializing in ferreting out top secrets for corporations and the über-wealthy, has evolved into her role as “accidental assassin.” Haunted by her “kills,” she can’t stop meting out her brand of justice. The complicated Vanessa makes for an intriguing heroine—at once tough, fearless, vulnerable, and compassionate.