Velocity

Starred review from August 16, 2010
Jacobson’s third thriller featuring FBI profiler Karen Vail (after Crush) sizzles with nonstop action and startling details about drug trafficking. When Karen’s lover, Det. Robby Hernandez, disappears in California’s Napa Valley while she’s busy catching John Wayne Mayfield, the notorious “Crush Killer,” Karen is horrified to learn that she may have blown Robby’s cover. As part of a DEA operation, Robby was investigating drug cartel kingpin Carlos Cortez and his associates, including the CFO of a mobile wine bottling company, César Guevara. Guevara was funneling drugs for Cortez and using Mayfield to eliminate anyone opposing the drug lord. For years the DEA has wanted to take down Cortez, and now Karen does, too. Refreshingly real, Karen doesn’t let her tough “take no prisoners” attitude stand in the way of following her heart. While this dizzy nail-biter is a direct sequel to Crush, enough backstory will keep new readers up to speed.

Starred review from September 15, 2010

In this sequel to Crush, FBI profiler Karen Vail and the Napa County Major Crimes Task Force have captured the Napa Crush Killer. Vail's lover, Detective Robby Hernandez, has gone missing, a suspected victim of foul play. As Vail and her colleagues launch a frantic search for Robby, a new murder points to someone operating under the same M.O. as the Crush Killer. Is an accomplice still on the loose? Is there more to Robby's disappearance than meets the eye? Is this the case that causes Vail to come unhinged? Joined by mysterious operative Hector De Santos, a desperate Vail repeatedly throws scruples and regulations to the wind in her attempts to find Robby before it's too late. VERDICT Velocity plunges readers into a nail-biting, heart-pounding chase through the dark world of serial killers, drug cartels, and DEA busts and exposes an edgier, more vulnerable Vail. Jacobson's best to date; essential for anyone who craves nonstop action, danger, and a gutsy heroine.--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
First, FBI profiler Karen Vails romantic getaway with Detective Robby Hernandez in the Napa Valley turns into a busmans holiday, as she pursues a serial killer. Then Hernandez goes missing, and in her search for her best friend and lover, Vail inadvertently puts him in mortal danger. Called back to Quantico by her boss, Thomas Gifford, to work a high-profile case, Vail connects with Hector DeSantos, a government operative who agrees to put his considerable covert resources into finding Hernandez. When DeSantos uncovers Giffords involvement in the Hernandez disappearance, Vaila veritable force of nature when someone she loves is in jeopardygets carte blanche to work the search. Jacobson, who dealt with the wine business in Crush (2009), picks up just where that book ended as he explores illegal drug trafficking and the deadly cartels behind it. Those who cross Karen Vail do so at their peril, and the third in this series is a high-tech, interagency procedural with nonstop action. Gritty crime fiction with adrenaline-producing suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)