The Innocent is good, but lacks much of the in your face, edge of the knife, fast paced action of Taylor Stevens' first novel, The Informationist. In contrast to the unexpected twists and turns of her first novel, The Innocent covers territory that will seem familiar to readers of the action, thriller genre. While this is a good, stand alone story, if you haven't read the first book of the series, you really won't see the full depth and complexity of the main character, Vanessa Michael Munroe from this book. It would be a shame not to realize the full range of this character, so definitely start this series from the beginning. This book was provided by the good folks at Amazon Vine.