Press Releases
Vanessa Michael Munroe returns in a new novel by Taylor Stevens, The Catch
By the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of The Informationist

The Catch
Taylor Stevens
- Imprint: Crown Publishers
- On sale: July 15, 2014
- Price: $24.00
- Pages: 368
- ISBN: 9780385348935
212-572-2722
sbreivogel@randomhouse.com
Early Praise for THE CATCH:
“Another page turner… 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.” —Fort Worth 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
“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
“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. . . . 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
Select Praise for Taylor Stevens and her VANESSA MICHAEL MUNROE Series:
“Munroe is a sensational character and Stevens is a sensational writer.” —Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series
“Stevens . . .writes with the confidence of one who knows she’s hit on a winning series character who has the world at her beck and call.” —Los Angeles Times
“If you haven’t joined the Munroe bandwagon, now’s the time to climb aboard.” —Dallas Morning News
“Munroe is the perfect heroine for the twenty-first century. [She has] a mind like Jason Bourne, the skill set of a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and the fighting ability of Jack Reacher.” —Crimespree
“Fans of thrillers who haven’t yet discovered Stevens are in for a treat.” —Associated Press
“A protagonist as deadly as she is irresistible.”—Vince Flynn
When Stevens published her debut novel, The Informationist,it wascelebrated by some of the best writers in the genre, including Lee Child, Vince Flynn, Michael Palmer, and Tess Gerritsen; it was widely covered in the national media; its rights were sold in twenty countries; it was optioned for film by James Cameron; andit became an instant New York Times bestseller. Reviewers and readers alike were drawn to Stevens’s complex characters—particularly her butt-kicking protagonist Vanessa Michael Munroe, who has drawn comparisons to Jason Bourne, Lisbeth Salander, Jack Reacher, and James Bond—and the page-turning plot that transported us from the United States and Germany to Equatorial Guinea and France. Her follow-up novels, The Innocent and The Doll, received critical acclaim and served to solidify her talents.
While readers quickly fell in love with Stevens’s fearless heroine, they were also fascinated by the author’s own compelling history: born into the Children of God, Stevens was raised in communes across the globe and denied an education beyond the sixth grade. She escaped the cult in her twenties, leaving everything behind to start over in the United States, and it was there that she taught herself to write. In her riveting new novel, THE CATCH (Crown; July 15, 2014), Stevens draws on her years spent living in Africa to craft the unforgettable scenes, settings, and cultures within the book.
Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and information hunter, has a reputation for getting things done—often dangerous and not quite legal things. The difficult and deadly work has left her with blood on her hands and a soul stained with guilt. Having borne the burden of one death too many, Munroe has fled to Djibouti, Africa. There, where her only responsibility is greasing the wheels of commerce for a small maritime security company, she finds stillness—until her boss pressures her to join his team as an armed transit guard on a ship bound for Kenya. Days into the voyage, Munroe discovers that the security contract is merely cover for a gunrunning operation. The ship is invaded off the Somali coast, and in a moment of impulse while fighting her way out, she drags the unconscious captain with her. But nothing about the hijacking is what it seems. The pirates were never after the ship; they’d come for the captain. In chasing him, they make their one mistake: targeting Munroe raises the killer’s instinct she’s tried so hard to bury. Wounded and on the run, Vanessa Michael Munroe will use the life of her catch as bait and bartering chip to manipulate every player with a stake in the ship’s outcome, and find a way to wash her conscience clean.
An adrenaline-fueled ride of foreign intrigue that is filled with double-crosses and boots-on-the-ground scheming, THE CATCH is sure to be one of this summer’s biggest thrillers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TAYLOR STEVENS is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of The Informationist, The Innocent, and The Doll as well as the novella The Vessel. Featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe, the series has received critical acclaim, and her books are published in twenty languages. The Informationist has been optioned for film by James Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. Born in New York State and into the Children of God, raised in communes across the globe and denied an education beyond the sixth grade, Stevens was in her twenties when she broke free to follow hope and a vague idea of what possibilities lay beyond. She now lives in Texas and is at work on the next Munroe novel.
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