Karen Vail Books in Order
Find the Karen Vail books by Alan Jacobson in order, with short summaries, character background, and clear guidance on where to start the series.
Last updated: July 3, 2026
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Publication Order
9 books
The 7th Victim
by Alan Jacobson
2008
In Karen Vail's first case, she faces the Dead Eyes killer while carrying heavy personal baggage of her own. The seventh victim becomes the key to a truth that could solve the murders and shatter her career.
Crush
by Alan Jacobson
2009
Sent to Napa for forced time off, Karen Vail finds a corpse in a wine cave and walks straight into a serial killer investigation. Her arrival rattles the case, and the murderer pushes back hard.
Velocity
by Alan Jacobson
2010
Picking up right after Crush, Karen Vail realizes the earlier case was not as solved as it seemed. A new killer, connected in disturbing ways to the last one, drags her into a deeper and more personal nightmare.
Fatal Twist
by Alan Jacobson
2011
Karen Vail hunts the Park Rapist in Washington, D.C., just as another predator, a sniper, lines up a deadly shot. The two threats seem unrelated at first, until the case turns into something far stranger and more dangerous.
Inmate 1577
by Alan Jacobson
2011
Karen Vail heads to San Francisco after a brutal rape-murder, only to find a case tangled with buried secrets and old prison history. The trail leads to Alcatraz, where the past still holds the answer.
No Way Out
by Alan Jacobson
2013
A bombing at a London art gallery pulls Karen Vail into a conspiracy centered on a newly unearthed manuscript. Soon she is chasing a long-vanished fugitive while enemies on several sides close in.
Spectrum
by Alan Jacobson
2014
The case called Hades begins when rookie NYPD cop Karen Vail finds herself facing a baffling murder in 1995. Decades later, now an FBI profiler, she gets another shot at the killer who has haunted her entire career.
The Darkness of Evil
by Alan Jacobson
2017
When the daughter of a locked-up serial killer receives a chilling message from prison, Karen Vail knows the past is moving again. To stop a new wave of terror, she must reopen old wounds and outthink evil that never really went away.
Red Death
by Alan Jacobson
2020
In Honolulu, middle-aged women are dying in ways that look natural, until Detective Adam Russell calls in FBI profiler Karen Vail. She faces a killer who leaves almost no trace and may be striking in plain sight.
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