App Store

Google Play

Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Step into an infinite world of stories

Listen and read

Alan Jacobson

From the USA Today–bestselling author of The 7th Victim, books 4 and 5 in the FBI thriller series featuring “one of thrillerdom’s feistiest heroines” (Joseph Finder, New York Times–bestselling author of The Switch).

The survivor of abusive marriage, Special Agent Karen Vail has become hard and uncompromising in her work as the FBI’s lead profiler. Follow her now as she trails brutal killers across the country and then across the pond …

Inmate 1577: When an elderly woman is found raped and murdered in San Francisco, Vail heads west to team up with SFPD inspector Lance Burden and her former task force colleague Det. Roxxann Dixon. As they chase the killer around the city, his rampage continues, leaving behind clues that lead them to Alcatraz Island, whose long-buried, decades-old secrets hold the key to their case …

“A powerful thriller, brilliantly conceived and written. ” —Clive Cussler, New York Times–bestselling author of Havana Storm

No Way Out: After a massive bombing in London, Karen Vail is dispatched to England to work with the Scotland Yard on drafting a threat assessment to head off future attacks. Only, their work uncovers a trail leading to a centuries-old manuscript, the radicals bent on destroying it, and a rogue covert operative with explosive plans. Soon both assassins and British authorities are chasing the beleaguered FBI agent in a race for her life, and there’s no telling who will come out on top …

“Jacobson knows how to throw in plot twists that are shocking but logical. ” —Library Journal

Praise for Alan Jacobson

“Karen Vail is as compelling a character as any created by Patricia Cornwell, or yours truly. ” —James Patterson, New York Times–bestselling author

Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

The Karen Vail Novels

Inmate 1577 and No Way Out: Two Karen Vail Novels

This thriller duology featuring FBI profiler Karen Vail “sizzles with nonstop action” (Publishers Weekly).

In FBI profiler Karen Vail’s second adventure after the standout bestseller The 7th Victim, Vail finds herself in the Napa Valley, where a serial killer has been crushing his victims’ windpipes and leaving their bodies in caves and vineyards. But when the Crush Killer learns that an FBI profiler has joined the Major Crimes Task Force, the newfound attention emboldens him, and he engages Vail in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Although a sudden break in the case helps her zero in on the identity of the killer, she senses that something isn’t right. Will she figure it out before it’s too late? In a rousing climax that has left readers breathless (and that Publishers Weekly termed “a shockeroo”), Vail must pick up the pieces—and the carnage left behind by the Crush Killer.

Velocity begins the moment Crush ends, with Vail having lost something dear to her and possessing a single-minded fixation on finding who was responsible—and making them pay. As the task force, reeling from their loss, attempts to regroup, Vail discovers that they had made vital mistakes on the Crush Killer case—errors that have had dire consequences. After being ordered to return to Washington, Vail enlists the services of a covert “black” government operative, Hector DeSantos, to assist her in tracking down those behind the evil she and her task force have been grappling with.

But what Vail and DeSantos learn places her in the crosshairs of criminals more dangerous than any she has ever faced. And along the way, startling revelations emerge that will forever change Karen Vail—as well as those close to her.

Researched meticulously with over three dozen experts in multiple disciplines and with government access that required clearance from a congressional subcommittee, Crush and Velocity take you behind closed doors into a world most people do not know exists.

Both Crush and Velocity were optioned by Hollywood, and Velocity was named one of the “Top 5 Best Books of the Year” by Library Journal.

Crush and Velocity: Two Karen Vail Novels

Introducing FBI profiler Karen Vail, who crosses paths with a Virginia serial killer in the first in the bestselling series.
 
 Special Agent Karen Vail “is a knockout, tough and brilliant” (Tess Gerritsen). As lead profiler for the FBI, Vail is spearheading the task force investigation into a serial killer known as “Dead Eyes,” who’s been terrorizing Fairfax County, Virginia.
 
 What separates this psychopath from the others is a peculiar savagery, and an intimate knowledge of the FBI’s detailed strategy of pursuit. What separates Vail from her peers is a life that has made her hard and uncompromising. Recently divorced from an abusive husband, and in the throes of an ugly custody battle, she’s also helpless against her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. But little by little, as Vail’s personal baggage begins to consume her, the investigation threatens to derail.
 
 Now she’s weighing her last hope on a controversial profile. It suggests that the one key to solving the case lies with the seventh victim. But that key will also unlock secrets that could destroy Vail’s career, and expose a truth that even she might not be strong enough to survive.
 
 In compiling his research for The 7th Victim, Alan Jacobson was allowed wide-ranging access to the FBI’s behavioral profiling unit over several years. Named one of the top five books of the year by Library Journal, it’s “a quantum leap in terror and suspense . . . A masterpiece” (New York Times–bestselling author James Rollins).

The 7th Victim: A Novel

In the USA Today–bestselling author’s “addictive second Karen Vail thriller,” the FBI profiler tracks a serial killer through California wine country (Publishers Weekly).

 In this follow-up to the standout bestseller The 7th Victim, Karen Vail ventures to Napa Valley, where a serial killer has been crushing his victims’ windpipes and leaving their bodies in caves. But when the Crush Killer learns that an FBI profiler has joined the Major Crimes Task Force, the newfound attention emboldens him, and he sets in motion a plan that wreaks havoc on the town—as well as the task force. Although a sudden break in the case helps Vail zero in on the identity of the killer, she senses that something isn’t right. If she doesn’t figure it out in time, the consequences will be dire.

 In a rousing climax that leaves readers breathless, and which Publishers Weekly termed a “shockeroo ending,” Vail must pick up the pieces—and clean up the carnage left behind by the Crush Killer.

 Meticulously researched during years of work with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, this high-velocity thriller from national bestselling author Alan Jacobson features the kind of edge-of-your-seat ending that inspired Nelson DeMille to call Jacobson “a hell of a writer.”
 
Crush is the first installment of a two-part story that concludes with Velocity, book three in the Karen Vail Series.

Crush

From a USA Today–bestselling author: FBI profiler Karen Vail’s hunt for a serial killer leads her into a dangerous criminal web—“relentless as a bullet” (Michael Connelly).

 After a colleague connects Vail with covert Department of Defense operative Hector DeSantos, who has a knack for uncovering difficult-to-locate information, the pair pries loose long-buried secrets and deceptions that reveal a much-larger criminal enterprise at work. As Vail squares off against foes more dangerous than any she has yet encountered, shocking personal and professional truths emerge—truths that may be more than she can handle.

 In keeping with Alan Jacobson’s page-turning style, Velocity is a high-octane thriller, a memorable work rich in believable characters and an intricately plotted story that’s well-researched and ripped from today’s headlines. Velocity was named one of the Strand Magazine’s top ten books for 2010, Suspense Magazine’s top five thrillers of 2010, Library Journal’s top five thrillers of the year, and the Los Angeles Times’ top picks of the year.
 
Velocity is the second installment of a two-part story that begins with Crush, book two of the Karen Vail Series.

Velocity

FBI profiler Karen Vail tracks a killer through San Francisco in this “powerful thriller, brilliantly conceived and written” by a USA Today–bestselling author (Clive Cussler).

 When an elderly woman is found raped and brutally murdered in San Francisco, Vail heads west to team up with SFPD Inspector Lance Burden and her former task force colleague Detective Roxxann Dixon.

 As Vail, Burden, and Dixon follow the killer’s trail in and around San Francisco, the offender continues his rampage, leaving behind clues that ultimately lead them to the most unlikely of places: a mysterious island ripped from city lore whose long-buried, decades-old secrets hold the key to their case. Alcatraz. The Rock. 

 It’s a case that has more twists and turns than the famed Lombard Street . . . and a novel that Clive Cussler calls “a powerful thriller, brilliantly conceived and written.”

Inmate 1577

The FBI profiler teams up with Scotland Yard in this “outstanding thriller” by the USA Today–bestselling author of The 7th Victim (Library Journal, starred review).

 When a potent firebomb destroys part of an art gallery in an exclusive London district, FBI profiler Karen Vail is dispatched to England to work with Scotland Yard on drafting a threat assessment to head off future attacks. But Vail soon discovers that at the heart of the bombing lies a four-hundred-forty-year-old manuscript that holds clues to England’s past—with dramatic political and social implications. The manuscript’s content is so explosive that a group of political radicals is bent on destroying it at all costs.

 Or is it the work of someone else? The trail leads Vail to a notorious fugitive who has escaped law enforcement for decades, and who appears to be planning a major attack on London and the United States. When Hector DeSantos, banished from the US Department of Defense and now a rogue covert operative, turns up in England and takes actions that threaten Vail’s life, she finds herself on the run from the British security service, Scotland Yard, and a group of internationally trained assassins—all determined to silence her . . . all tightening the net to ensure that she’s got no way out.

 With his trademark spirited dialogue, page-turning scenes, and well-drawn characters, national bestselling author Alan Jacobson (“My kind of writer,” says Michael Connelly) has once again crafted an intelligent, twisting thriller destined to be talked about long after the last page has been turned.

No Way Out

FBI profiler Karen Vail is haunted by a serial killer from her rookie days in a “pulse-pounding” thriller by a USA Today bestselling author (Providence Journal).

 New York City: home to world-renowned museums, theater, restaurants, iconic sports franchises. Central Park. Wall Street. And an infamous serial killer who’s terrorized the Big Apple for decades.

 The year is 1995 and the NYPD has just graduated a promising new patrol officer named Karen Vail. The rookie’s first day on the job is anything but easy when she finds herself at the crime scene of a young woman murdered in an unusual manner. Vail is unsure of what she’s looking at or what it means—but it’s a case that will weigh on her mind for nearly twenty years.

 As the years pass, Vail’s career takes unexpected twists and turns—as does the case that’s come to be known as Hades. Now a skilled FBI profiler, will Vail be in a better position to catch the killer? Or will Hades prove to be Karen Vail’s hell on earth?

 The character who has captivated readers worldwide—and who won the praise of literary giants Michael Connelly, James Patterson, and Nelson DeMille—returns in a story that captures the experiences that shaped the revered profiler and made her the top cop she is today.

Spectrum

FBI profiler Karen Vail is on the hunt for an escaped serial killer in the latest jaw-dropping thriller from USA Today–bestselling author Alan Jacobson.

 Jasmine Marcks was a teenager when she discovered her father was a killer. First, there was the strip of bloody duct tape; then, the bloodstain on his shirt; and finally, the long nights away from home that always coincided with gruesome deaths. Roscoe Lee Marcks killed fourteen people before he was finally put behind bars. But as renowned FBI agent Karen Vail soon learns, Marcks’s reign of terror isn’t over yet.

 After writing a book about growing up as the child of a serial killer, Jasmine receives a letter—a single sheet of paper mailed from the maximum-security prison Marcks now calls home. The page hides a threatening message from a father who wants vengeance against the daughter who turned him in to the police. So when Marcks breaks out of prison, Agent Vail calls on a legendary retired profiler to help her find the escaped convict—and keep him from making Jasmine his fifteenth victim.

 Alan Jacobson created Karen Vail—one of the most compelling heroes in suspense fiction, earning acclaim from James Patterson, Nelson DeMille, and Michael Connelly—after seven years of working with two senior profilers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit. Over the years, Vail has tangled with the worst serial killers America has to offer. But none compares to Roscoe Lee Marcks.