Intelligence, espionage, and even war as we know it has been transformed by the War on Terror. With the CIA on the ropes, the armed forces stretched thin, and the need for vital inside information and action at an all-time high, the United States government and its allies have turned to private organizations to carry the load. In companies like Blackwater USA and Triple Canopy, former high-ranking soldiers and specialists are finding that the services they can offer pays extremely well, and the pool of jobs is seemingly infinite.

Camille Black's Black Management is one of these private military corporations. With over 1,000 employees, Black Management is one of the smaller organizations. They have set up their headquarters in the volatile and opportunistic Middle East and find themselves competing heavily for a piece of the pie.

Camille is approached by the CIA for an extremely important mission. Her goal is to track down and eliminate a man accused of selling arms to terrorist cells throughout the Middle East. But her quarry is her ex-fiance, Hunter Smith. Battling her old feelings, but fueled by his disloyalty to both her and his country, Camille sets off into the shadows of the War on Terror to find him. Dodging death daily, her hunt takes her way beyond the frontlines, and the further she goes the more the lines between good and evil begin to blur, and Camille is not sure who to trust.

Thoroughly researched and as authentic as tomorrow's headlines, Outsourced is an edge-of-your seat thriller and a realistic look at how the business of the War on Terror is conducted by the private corporations, who profits most, and who is made to suffer.

"Hillhouse (Rift Zone) focuses on the larger-than-life exploits of Camille Black, the head of a major firm that supplies skilled personnel to the U.S. effort in Iraq, in a thriller best read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of national security privatization. When the C.I.A. asks Camille to find her ex-fiancé, Hunter Smith, a possible double-agent who may be selling arms to terrorists, the former lovers find themselves the pawns of shadowy forces working for competing factions of the U.S. government. A clichéd denouement caps an endless series of fights, escapes and torture scenes, but a sobering afterword ('The Facts Behind the Fiction') shows the author has done her homework. Unfortunately, the stock plot, with its unlikely scenario for the fate of Osama Bin Laden, fails to do justice to the real-life issues the novel raises." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[F]ans of high-tech military adventure...should be satisfied." Booklist

"Chillingly Authentic. Terrifyingly true. In Outsourced, Raelynn Hillhouse creates something powerfully new — a thriller infused with so many actual events that it feels like reality. To understand what's happening in our world, you need to read this book." David Morrell, The New York Times bestselling author of The Brotherhood of the Rose

"Outsourced catapults the spy thriller into the twenty-first century. Her prose sparkles, and her plotting dazzles. Hillhouse writes with unusual authority and insider access. She's more than a rising star; she's going to go supernova." Joseph Finder, The New York Times bestselling author of Killer Instinct

"Captures the spirit and grit of the men and women that go in harm's way as private citizens — call them mercenaries or contractors." Frank Gallagher, Agent in Charge of Blackwater's security detail for Ambassador Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq

R. J. Hillhouse lived for over six years in Central and Eastern Europe and is fluent in several languages. She earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan. A former professor and Fulbright fellow, Hillhouse has lectured at such institutions as Harvard, the Smithsonian and the Soviet Academy of Sciences.