The Doll, by Taylor Stevens

Vanessa Michael Munroe is back, and now she's a victim!  We first met her in The Informationist, then followed her rescue operation in The Innocent.  Her skills as a hired gun/body guard/person who gets things done have come to the attention of people on the other side of the law.

The Doll opens with Munroe's abduction by some mysteriously skillful, wiley, and well-financed bad dudes.  Her associate (now lover) Bradford tries to track her down, but the bad guys get her to Europe, where they want her to use her skills to smuggle another kidnapped young lady to a buyer in Monaco.  This young lady, a rising Hollywood starlet, was kidnapped by the Doll Maker's people at the request of a client who is paying a tremendous amount of money to add her to his "collection."  What follows is Munroe's attempts to following the Doll Maker's instructions as she drives the girl across Europe (he is holding her best friend hostage as collateral), maybe trying to save the girl, and Bradford's efforts stateside to penetrate the Doll Maker's horrible trafficking organization.

The focus of the novel is Munroe's scheming and planning for escape and revenge, but the undertone of the world of human trafficking is strong and disturbing.  Granted, the kidnapping of a well-known darling of screen and tabloid seemed a bit over-the-top and unbelievable, but Stevens sheds light on the very real problem of sex trafficking.  As Munroe observes, "Were there no market, no buyers, and no men willing to pay for sex, organizations that fed off human misery, and criminals like the Doll Maker who stole and cashed in on the value of the female body, would cease to exist."  (Too bad our government doesn't put more resources toward human trafficking instead of wasting money on the pointless, destructive "War on Drugs.")

So in spite of the hard-to-swallow scenario of a celebrity being kidnapped for sale on the sex slave market, and in spite of the unbelievable seemingly omniscient and omnipotent power of the Doll Maker and his organization, and in spite of Munroe's unrealistic super smarts and super fighting skills (which Stevens' readers have come to expect), The Doll is a fun, gripping read, with unexpected twists and turns and a satisfying, if despairing ending.  It's at least as good as The Informationist, and probably better than The Innocent.  I will look forward to Munroe's next adventure.

(By the way, another book that deals with sex trafficking, but in a more realistic, therefore more disturbing, way is Corban Addison's A Walk Across the Sun.)


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!