The 7th Victim A Novel

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).
 

Alan Jacobson is the national bestselling author of several critically acclaimed novels. In order to take readers behind the scenes to places they might never go, Jacobson has embedded himself in many federal agencies, including spending several years working with two senior profilers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s vaunted Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico. During that time, Jacobson edited four published FBI research papers on serial offenders, attended numerous FBI training courses, worked with the head firearms instructor at the academy, and received ongoing personalized instruction on serial killers—which continues to this day. He has also worked with high-ranking members of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Marshals Service, the New York Police Department, SWAT teams, local bomb squads, branches of the US military, chief superintendents and detective sergeants at Scotland Yard, criminals, armorers, helicopter pilots, chief executive officers, historians, and Special Forces operators. These experiences have helped him to create gripping, realistic stories and characters. His series protagonist, FBI profiler Karen Vail, resonates with both female and male readers, and writers such as Nelson DeMille, James Patterson, and Michael Connelly have called Vail one of the most compelling heroes in suspense fiction.

Jacobson’s books have been published internationally, and several have been optioned for film and television. A number have been named to Best of the Year lists.

Jacobson has been interviewed extensively on television and radio, including on CNN, NPR, and multiple ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox network affiliates.