Customer Reviews

Crush (Karen Vail Series)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

I wish I would have purchased it at 0.00, but it's a good book, however, the ploy is to entice you to read Velocity, which I didn't care for and didn't like the price. You have to read it because it is the 2nd part of this book. I thought the 7th victim was really great, but I don't like to be forced to buy a new book to read what happens in the book I was reading. So Free is a great price but just keep in mind if you want to finish the "book" you will have to read velocity which is 17.00 hardcover and 13.00 on kindle.
Next time author please just finish the book and let your readers decide if they want to read another. And, yes I did see your video.. Still don't agree. There was so much fluff in the 3rd book it could have easily been the end of Crush.

I loved the book and would've given it 5 stars....however, the ending (there wasn't one) left you hanging....you have to buy "velocity" to read the conclusion...as much as I loved the book, I will not be manipulated into buying the next book.

I am the type that will buy the whole series of every book I read, but not this one just because of how it was done.

Length:: 1:10 Mins

I just finished reading "Crush" by Alan Jacobson and have recorded a short video about my experience.

I agree with others that you are angry at the end of the book. Not that the wrong villian was caught, but, you were caught and coerced into buying another book (Velocity) to learn the ending. Very poor marketing strategy. I'll never read one of his books again.

About a fourth of the way into "Crush" I found it to be much more engaging than Jacobson's previous book "The 7th Victim," which I actually purchased (it was later offered for free as a Kindle download).

Alas, what I ended up with was yet one more example of "you get what you pay for." This free book leaves multiple plot lines open without resolution. The author's obvious purpose of giving this book away is to generate buyers for the next Karen Vail thriller. In other words, you'll have to buy Jacobson's next book to find out how all the loose ends of "Crush" come together.

I get the methodology of giving a book away to generate interest and have people purchase subsequent books. What I hate is that this author took that methodology further. Instead of just trying to generate interest, Jacobson offers up an unfinished work in an attempt to force people to buy the next installment in order to get resolution. The author is either a strong-arming bully or a self-doubting wimp. Either way, I'm done with him and won't read anything from him again, free or not.

It's a shame, because I was really enjoying the book right up to its non-ending.

Crush was a really good book with a lot of action and some new characters, very well done. But it does not have an ending. You really have to get the next book. That is a bit of a downer to some but at least you know that going in. And the story is really good and worth reading.

Of course with Agent Vail there are more serial killers and violence and suspense and a fast-moving story. You travel to California in this one for a change of scene from the DC area.

Mr. Jacobson wastes a lot of time on wine making and the process of wine making in the Napa Valley of California. I know more now than I needed to know. But, at the end of the book you find out why he did this. He wants you to buy the next book in the series. I will not, since it will cost twice what this one cost. I was a truly frustrated reader. The book moved along well in the beginning. It got mired down in the middle with sub-plots and wine making. I write short stories, and some of my stuff is better than this. A beginning and an ending, with no "loose ends" is what you strive for. You shouldn't use a story to empty the pockets of your loyal readership. If you write well, they will buy the next book without lowbrow tactics. Mentioning your next novel at the end of the book would have set better with me. Incorporating it into the novel was lowlife.

This was my first book by Mr. Jacobson and my last. I just could not warm up to his character Karen Vail.
To be honest Mr. Jacobson I wanted the killer to get rid of her, that is how obnoxious she was.
If you are a profiler, profile and stand back and let someone else do their job.
I suffered through 3/4 of the book and had to take it back to the library. The only good thing is I did not spend money to buy it.

Simply awful. I can't remember when I cared less for the hero/heroine in a story. The whole murder while on vacation in Napa is so contrived, especially for a second novel. Seems to me like an excuse for a fact-finding trip to Napa so the author could throw in local color.

I enjoyed the descriptions of Napa Valley and its wineries and other attractions, and this book whet my appetite to visit there. However, the character development was almost non-existent, and the writing was pedestrian at best. It was fairly easy to predict the part each character would play and how the plot would unfold. But what I found infuriating was that this is only half a book. The serial killer, never fully fleshed out, is apprehended, but the mystery is left to be solved in the next book. And there are so many half-explained references to events in previous books that you always feel like you came in in the middle of the movie.

It's as if the author knows that the book is not good enough to induce you to buy the rest of the series so he resorts to a gimmick to do so.

I cannot imagine how annoyed I would be had I actually paid money for this.