Crush

A Karen Vail Novel

By: Alan Jacobson

Narrated by: Tish Hicks

Fresh off the most challenging case of her career, The 7th Victim heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California's wine country.

Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer. From the outset, Vail is frustrated by her inability to profile the offender—until she realizes why: the Behavioral Analysis Unit has not previously encountered a killer like him.

As Vail and the task force work around the clock to identify and locate him, they're caught in a web knotted with secretive organizations, a decades-long feud between prominent wine families, and widespread corruption that leads Vail to wonder whom, if anyone, she can trust. Meanwhile, as the victim count rises, Vail can't shake the gnawing sense that something isn't right.

With the killer's actions threatening the Napa Valley's multi-billion dollar industry, the stakes have never been greater, and the race to find the killer never more urgent.

And through it all, a surprise lurks...one that Karen Vail never sees coming.

Meticulously researched during years of work with the FBI profiling unit and extensive interviews with wine industry professionals, best-selling author Alan Jacobson delivers a high-velocity thriller featuring the kind of edge-of-your-seat ending that inspired Nelson DeMille to call him "a hell of a writer".

©2009 Alan Jacobson (P)2009 Phoenix Books, Inc

Looking forward to the next one

I liked the 7th Victim enough to give this one & try...and now I am regretting being out of credits so I can't get the third book right away. Yes, the main character is flawed, but aren't we all? I find her to be more enjoyable by not being perfect.
I agree the narrator can be a little flat at times but still the storyline is good.
I found this to be a good listen overall & eagerly await getting the next one.

Terrible ending!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I never write reviews, this is the first and probably last one. We're all entitled to our own option and it takes all kinds to make the world go around, but.... I can put up with a dysfunctional, aren't we all to some degree, main character. But, a book that doesn't end because the author wants to sell the next book makes me furious!!

So much promise

The book started with much promise, but it did not hold my interest. It had moments of suspense, and action, and thought I had figured out the bad guy,, but was surprised. In some areas, way too much detail that did not hold my interest. Hated the ending, and so glad I can move on to another book. Won't be figuring out what happened to the missing person, because I don't plan on reading another of this author's books any time soon.

loved it

where are the rest of the series?? I'm dying for the follow up. Karen Vale is a great character with a bad temper and an inability to step away from the job.

crush review<br />

the story too a while to get me interested. Alot of details that could have been edited out, but once the story came together I wanted to continue and couldn't stop until I found out the whole story.

This is the FBI's Best?

This is the first Karen Vail novel that I've listened to -- and it's going to be my last. The story is OK (not great) and I'm enjoying it only because I lived for a number of years in the Napa Valley. The reader, too, is OK. But Karen Vail! -- how did the FBI ever hire such an irrational, dysfunctional, dim-bulb? The woman's a disaster with barely enough sense to use a Blackberry -- she certainly shouldn't be trusted with firearms. And a note to the reader -- it's St. HelEEna not Helen-ah.

I had stopped listening for some reason

I don't recall the Why, but it was 07Dec, so when I went back... it was hard to pickup. I guess I wasn't a fan of what the killer did. Maybe of the victims had been male, it would have made a difference?? unknown.

Better than the 7th vic...

This book held my interest more than the 7th victim. Not saying much. Also the narrator left me wandering whom was speaking almost all of the characters sounded alike. I just had finished a Scott Brick narration, boy what a difference. The book was OK until the end, many authors seem to blow the ending. Such as Dean Koontz, The Husband. Well this book was not that bad, but a close 3rd.