Crush by Alan Jacobson

Crush is a Karen Vail novel which meant nothing to me since I haven’t read any work by Jacobson before.  Karen is an FBI profiler with the propensity to get hands on with those she is profiling.  This book takes placed in Napa Valley.   For those of you familiar with wine making, crush, in this case has nothing to do with it.   However it does have very interesting facts and observations of the wine country.  The villain takes the term “crush” and uses it as part of his modus operandi. 

Karen Vail is obsessed with her job.   Since she is an ongoing character I may be incorrect as to my assessment but in this book she is clearly obsessive.  She is also impulsive and rude.  Karen is not a warm and fuzzy character.   As prickly as she may be she is highly regarded as a profiler.  Since she was frequently left guessing in this book, I have to guess she demonstrated those highly regarded skills more effectively in previous books.   Dixon on the other hand, was easy to like.   Jacobson gives clear rending of his characters.  They have strong, identifiable characteristics not all of which you will like. 

This was a good mystery with lots of plot details and misleading clues.  It was not predictable with the exception of Vail being annoying.   This lack of predictability made for a good story.   I normally like strong female protagonists.  It is obvious that I wasn’t enthralled with Karen Vail.  She is strong but her personality has too many similarities to a porcupine for me to like.   The book has an interesting ending.   I enjoyed it.

I recommend the book.

 Web Site:  http://alanjacobson.com/

 

 This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.