Book Reviews: Velocity

Velocity

Author: Alan Jacobson

Velocity, a speed demon of a novel, that centers around FBI profiler Karen Vail.  Karen’s boyfriend, Detective Robby Hernandez, has gone undercover for one of the largest drug cartels around – run by a man nmed Cortez.  One night he goes missing, and Karen discovers she had inadvertently revealed his undercover identity to the drug cartel.  Karen and her task force frantically search for Robby while a serial killer hovers around San Diego, where Karen last sees Robby.

When Karen is ordered to return to Quantico, FBI headquarters on another assignment, Vail’s rage cannot be contained.  Like a baby of the inferno, she fights her boss to find Robby instead.  Then she meets Hector DeSantos, a government operative, and the task force comes alive.  She, DeSantos and the DEA team up to find Robby and to bring in the drug cartel.  Robby’s friend and fellow detective, Sebastian, appears, shaken and exhausted – he has escaped the cartel.  But the cartel has Robby.

As Vail stakes her life in finding Robby, she flashes to her son, Jonathan.  She knows she is putting her life on the line – but Robby’s life means more to her than she can say.

When Robby is stolen from the cartel bruisers of Cortez by a rival cartel, he knows he is dead.  In a rampant turn, he finds he is in the hands of an old friend – Diego.  Diego is a lieutenant in the rival cartel, and demands that Robby confess to a crime Robby committed as a teenager – the killing of his father’s murderer.  Robby agrees, to save his life.

Taken to Villereal, the leader of the rival cartel, by Diego, Robby watches as Diego tries to kill Villereal – and is gunned down.  Villereal has made a deal with Cortez; Cortez gets Robby back in exchange for exclusive rights to Villereal to drug entry locations. 

Like Ludlam’s Robert Bourne novels, there are some very tough scenes in this adrenaline driven thriller. Karen, now in charge of the task force, races to find Robby with Diego’s help in the form of his cell phone which he has left on so that Vail can track Robby.  The novel spins from one direction to the next, always surprising, always enterprising.  Robby spins fom one horror to another.  The final takedown is breathtaking.  Karen Vail IS the new Robert Bourne, as taut and smart as any drug lord. 

If you love the feel of a cougar racing to kill its prey, with drama moving faster than lightning bursts, you will adore the twists, turns and complex plot that Karen and her DEA cohorts reside within.  Great writing, great profiling, pristine research that coalesces into the intelligence and conspiracy of this novel provides a great read.  Unstoppable, Karen Vail is her own inferno, and carnage explodes everywhere.  You won’t be able to put this novel down.  Operation Velocity drives in 5th gear and crashes through every red light right up to the finish line.  One of the best written, absolutely compelling and cogent novels on the bookstands today, this is a book not to miss.

Velocity  is available for purchase at Amazon.com and book dealers near you.