The secret to Alan Jacobson’s bestselling success is twenty years of research and training with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, the US Marshal Service, the DEA, Scotland Yard, the ATF, the US military, and more.
“The adage of “write what you know” is, to be blunt, asinine,” Jacobson says. “I love Mark Twain—who advocated such advice—but he lived in the 1800s. If authors today only wrote what they know, they’d write one book and have nothing further to say. I realized early on that a more realistic approach is, ‘Write what you know, and what you don’t know, educate yourself.’ And that’s been my MO since my second novel.”
It's an approach that’s created over a dozen books, including the Karen Vail and OPSIG Team Black series. But writing wasn’t an obvious career choice for Jacobson.
“Although I’d already decided that I wanted to become a chiropractor from a personal experience at age fourteen, I got my bachelor's in English. I couldn’t have known that this decision would prove prescient—because almost ten years after graduating from chiropractic school, I injured my wrist, sold my practice, and became a novelist.”
One of the tricks to maintaining a constant publishing pace all goes back to a comment a dentist made when he was a teen. “Always be aware of things around you.”
It might seem like a strange piece of advice, but it’s solid practice for a writer.
“What if? Those two words are the most important tool in a writer’s arsenal. The ability to take what you’re seeing and imagine scenarios that could happen stretches the mind and introduces you to unexpected thoughts and ideas,” Jacobson says.
“Once that what if scenario starts percolating in my mind, more thoughts start coming. The brainstorming process has begun, and like a surfer on a wave, I go with it and let it take me. I ride it for as long as possible, writing or dictating ideas until I’ve written myself out. More ideas keep coming in the subsequent days, weeks—and years.”
Whether it’s going behind the scenes in Scotland Yard, touring a DEA lab, or flying in an F-35 flight simulator, Jacobson wants to bring his experiences to life in his stories.
If you’re looking for fast-paced thrillers with global stakes and unforgettable characters, here is every novel by Alan Jacobson in order by series.
Novels by Alan Jacobson, with Reflection and Insights from the Author
The 7th Victim
“I wanted to write a definitive serial killer novel that would be respected by industry insiders and readers alike. That meant I had to get my research—my education, essentially—right,” Jacobson shares.
After spending seven years studying the prestigious FBI BAU, the Dead Eyes Killer and FBI profiler Karen Vail were born.
A killer is hunting the FBI’s backyard and the seventh victim is the key. But the secrets that the victim unlocks may destroy Vail’s career—if they don’t get her killed.
“I wrote The 7th Victim intending it to be a standalone. But my publisher told me the response to Karen Vail was extraordinary and all the sales reps and book buyers wanted to know when the next Vail novel would be coming out.”
Crush
A killer in Napa Valley has been crushing victims windpipes and leaving their bodies in vineyards and caves. But when FBI profiler Karen Vail is assigned to the case, the attention only emboldens him.
Forced into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, just when Vail thinks she might be getting closer, nothing is what it seems. Will she see the trap before it’s too late?
“The Crush story became much larger and complex—and my publisher told me it had to be divided in two because they couldn’t make the economics of an 800-page novel work. There were some readers who were unhappy they had to wait for Velocity to come out to find out how the whole story concluded.”
Velocity
“Velocity was the conclusion to Crush, which could be read as a standalone if anyone discovered Velocity first.”
With the help of covert Department of Defense operative Hector DeSantos, FBI profiler Karen Vail escalates her search for a serial killer. But their investigation uncovers long-buried secrets that reveal a much larger criminal enterprise than they first imagined.
And the truth may be more than she can handle.
Inmate 1577
“The best accidental book I ever wrote. I walked into my office and as I approached my computer, a thought hit me: Karen Vail on Alcatraz.”
After a woman is found raped and murdered in San Francisco, FBI profiler Karen Vail teams up with SFPD Inspector Lance Burden and her former colleague, Detective Roxxann Dixon. The trio follow the killer’s clues until they reach an unlikely location: Alcatraz. Will they find the answers they need in decades-old buried secrets on The Rock?
“There were still men and women alive who had lived and worked there while it was a penitentiary. I tracked some of them down and immersed myself in what happened at the prison—and why.”
No Way Out
“No Way Out was unusual in that I conceived of the story, outlined it, and started writing it without having a title. As it turned out, No Way Out could’ve been viewed as a “crossover” between the Karen Vail and the OPSIG Team Black series. Anyone who reads No Way Out but hasn’t yet experienced an OPSIG Team Black novel will get a terrific taste of what the OPSIG series is all about,” Jacobson said.
FBI profiler is sent to London after a firebomb destroys part of an exclusive London art gallery. She quickly learns that a 400-year-old manuscript was the target. A manuscript that holds secrets with current political and social implications.
But when a rogue operative appears in London, Vail finds herself on the run from Scotland Yard, the British secret service, and a group of internationally trained assassins.
Spectrum
It’s 1995, and Karen Vail is a new patrol officer for the NYPD. Her first day on the job lands her at a crime scene with an unusual murder. She doesn’t know what she’s looking at, or that it will haunt her for twenty years. For two decades, Hades has terrorized New York City. Now, as a skilled FBI profiler, does Vail finally have the tools necessary to catch the killer?
“Spectrum is the sixth Vail novel—but readers have told me it could serve as the origin story for Vail, a good entry point to the series," Jacobson reflected.
"In retrospect, they’re a hundred percent correct, and I’ve since recommended that people who want to start reading my novels begin with Spectrum.
The Darkness of Evil
“The Darkness of Evil is a ‘ripped from the headlines’ story, which is unusual for me because I usually think of the plotlines that eventually become headlines," Jacobson said. "I’d heard about a woman whose father was a serial killer—and she had no idea until she found bloodstained duct tape in his trunk one day.”
Jasmine Marcks discovered her father was a killer when she was a teenager. He killed fourteen people before he was caught. When her father breaks out of jail years later, all he wants is revenge.
FBI profiler Karen Vail is called to hunt down the killer before he finds his daughter and makes her his fifteenth victim.
“I found the concept intriguing, allowing me to tell a public interest story about a serial killer and the effects on a family, all from a different perspective than I’d used before in the Vail series," he continued.
Red Death
When Honolulu Detective Adam Russell finds two women in their sixties days apart who allegedly died of natural causes, he is suspicious. He calls FBI profiler Karen Vail for help. But even with her expertise, it’s hard to find the clues.
If these deaths appear so natural, how many more were overlooked? There’s a serial killer in paradise, and Vail is running out of time to find them.
“I’d always wanted to write a novel set in Hawaii and had outlined a few over the years," Jacobson said.
“But none were ideas that I found compelling, Karen Vail has never been there and putting the bull-in-a-china shop/break-things-and-see-what-happens Karen Vail in the laid back environment of Aloha, well, I knew stuff was gonna happen. And it wasn’t going to be dark chocolate and red wine. A trip to Oahu gave me some terrific ideas, the magic hit, and the novel came alive.”
The Hunted
“The Hunted was supposed to come out a year after False Accusations (my debut novel), but after multiple delays and substantial rewriting, I had a new character: Anthony Scarponi. He was a good villain with an interesting backstory,” Jacobson reflected.
Dr. Lauren Chambers believed her husband was the one person in the world she could trust. When he suddenly vanishes, her world nearly falls apart.
Private investigator Nick Bradley doesn’t believe she’s paranoid. But as he investigates his disappearance, Lauren is forced to face unsettling truths about the man she thought she knew.
Hard Target
“You never know where your ideas will come from or how they’ll come to you," Jacobson said.
"For Hard Target, my wife and I had gone to bed and as we were drifting off, she said, ‘Oh. I had an idea for a story but I don’t know where to go with it.' She gave me a one-sentence pitch and we fell asleep. I awoke a few hours later with the entire novel outlined in my head.”
On Election Night, the President-elect’s helicopter explodes in a horrifying terrorist attack. It doesn’t take long to realize that the group behind the attack has a reach that goes beyond the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
But even worse, it’s so deeply embedded in the fabric of America that it threatens to destroy our entire political system.
The Lost Codex
In 930 CE, the manuscript that became the Bible was written. In 1953, half of it went missing. Shortly after that, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, only to be promptly stolen.
And now, both documents are at the center of a massive geopolitical nightmare. It’s up to a special team of uniquely qualified agents to find the documents and catch—or kill—those responsible.
“The idea behind The Lost Codex came to me when my wife and I were walking through a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. On the way out of the exhibit I saw a book dealing with this mystery behind the Aleppo Codex, so I purchased it," Jacobson remembered. "And thus began a journey that would take me around the world, a story of historical fiction that went back over a millennia.”
Dark Side of the Moon
“I noticed a news headline that NASA had released never-before-seen photos from some of the Apollo missions. What caught my attention was that they had never released these pictures, fifty years later," Jacobson said. "I started wondering, why would it take them five decades to release those photos? Is there something in them they didn’t want us to know?”
In 1972, Apollo 17 returned from the moon with a terrible secret. They kept it hidden for decades. But a NASA contractor has leaked the most powerful weapon of mass destruction known to man to conspiring foreign powers.
FBI profiler Karen Vail and OPSIG Team Black Alexandra Rusakov have to find the mole and break up a spy ring while the rest of the OPSIG team heads to space to attempt to stop the deadliest war before it begins.
False Accusations
When Dr. Phillip Madison is charged with double homicide in a cold-blooded hit and run, his privileged life is upended. There’s blood on his car, a witness places him at the scene of the crime, and Madison doesn’t have an alibi.
Someone has engineered the case against him. And he’s running out of time to find the truth.
“One that I’ve never told about my debut is that I had a similar experience as the protagonist, Dr. Phillip Madison. At the time, I was that successful doctor volunteering at a nonprofit, who came into the crosshairs of a delusional individual," Jacobson reflected. "I became intrigued by the concept of being falsely accused of a crime—and being ill-equipped to prove otherwise.”
The Lost Girl
“My agent had wanted me to stretch my literary muscles and write a novel outside of the Karen Vail and OPSIG series. My wife pitched the concept of a story wherein a woman loses her young daughter and husband in a horrible accident.”
After Amy Robbins suffers the devastating loss of her daughter and husband, she is mired in depression. When she’s forced into a dead-end job to make ends meet, she stumbles on a secret that could upend a tragic lie.
Fixer Mickey Keller is sent in to make sure she stays quiet. But Amy’s FBI sister-in-law refuses to let him take away her only chance at a normal life.
“Without giving away more details about the storyline, suffice it to say that things are not always what they seem,” Jacobson said.
After talking to Jacobson about his extensive catalog, we closed with this question: what advice do you have for new and aspiring authors?
“I never want to discourage someone from pursuing his or her life’s passion. But a pragmatic approach is advisable. Learn the industry: how it operates, how you can leverage that (if you can), and approach it like a business—because being a novelist is essentially running a small business…with a very high level of failure. Pursue your passion, but make sure you can pay the bills, keep a roof over your heads, and food in your fridge. Write at night, in the morning, on the weekend—whenever you can carve out consistent time—but don’t quit your job thinking that your book will be a hit and you’ll be getting a huge advance.”
