Monday Night Jihad (Riley Covington Thriller Series #1) (Hardcover)

by Jason Elam (Author), Steve Yohn (Author)
Key Phrases: sniper team, Jim Hicks, Scott Ross, Sal Ricci (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Just in time for the Super Bowl is this debut suspense novel from a 14-year NFL place kicker and his Colorado pastor. The result yields some nice moments paired with problematic writing and improbable plot twists. Air Force 2d Lt. Riley Covington is given grace to play NFL football instead of serving out his military time, but he opts to return to active duty after a horrific stadium bombing. Hakeem Qasim is an Iraqi groomed for terrorism by tragic events in his childhood. The lives of both the squeaky-clean Christian Riley and the radical Muslim Hakeem intersect in a way that readers will see coming early in the novel. Rich details about life as an NFL player invigorate the story; the details become problematic when the story gets wordy (as in one long and unnecessary chapter toward the end of the book). Although the final [...] plot twist is too easy, unexpected humor helps leaven the serious themes, and the sparks of romance that fly between Riley and an American Muslim woman will pique readers' interest. (Jan.)
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Product Description
After a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Riley Covington is living his dream as a professional linebacker when he comes face-to-face with a radical terrorist group on his own home turf. Drawn into the nightmare around him, Riley returns to his former life as a member of a special ops team that crosses oceans in an attempt to stop the escalating attacks. But time is running out, and it soon becomes apparent that the terrorists are on the verge of achieving their goal: to strike at the very heart of America.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers; First Printing edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414317301
• ISBN-13: 978-1414317304
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #545,048 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a surprise, December 21, 2007

By	Basham "mom" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I picked up this book, hoping for a good read but dubious at the same time. Football and terrorism? And a new untried author to boot. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The writing is decent. The action keeps you turning the pages, and there is actually a plot. The protagonist is a Christian, which gives a certain dimension to the character and the outworking of the plot, and the author is careful to keep his "bad guys" human; i.e., complex. You can actually feel sympathy for the Muslim terrorist, while at the same time seeing how what he believes is destructive. I am going to have my teen sons read this -- it will be a painless way for them to learn about Islam (in both the "terrorist" and a "moderate") -- and on top of all that, there is no bad language or questionable scenes that I would have to remove. Three cheers for "clean" authors who can really write!!!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right Between the Uprights!!, January 18, 2008

By	John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I doubt that I would have ever found this book if I had not been told about it by a friend with whom I share an interest in various kinds of novels.

She had not read it, but she lives in Denver and the principal author of the book is Jason Elam, a member of the NFL Denver Broncos and their place kicker. She saw a review of the book in a local paper and mentioned that I might want to take a look at it. I did and I am very glad that I did so. It is a first rate novel on terrorisim that tells a gripping storty and that offers insight into that war that we are all involved in.

The principal figure in the book is Riley Covington. A former member of the USAF Special Operations Command seeing duty in Afghanastan and a graduate of the Air Force Academy, Covington has, after his tour of duty
been drafted by the Denver Mustangs and made the team as a linebacker.

Hakim Quasin is the antagonist of the story who, as a child, has seen his family bombed to dust in Operation Desert Storm and has sworn vengence on the United States. He is taken under the wing of a man known as "The Scorpion" who sees to it that the 12 year old Quasin is sent to Europe where the moulding process begins.

The planning begins to come to fruition as terrorists enter the United States with a plan to bring the war again to our shores. They are part of an organization known as The Cause.

Some former members of Covington's military unit are involved in trying to track them down and are closing in on some of them as they launch an attack at the Mall of America. Evidence obtained as a result of this action leads them to the belief that more is coming. But what?

Meanwhile, the Mustangs are preparing for an important league game on Monday Night Football. Unknown to anyone, so is The Cause. The attack is lauched during the game with much loss of life in a horrifying manner.

Covington is uninjured, but was very much in the middle of what transpired. As he contemplates what he witnessed "the question that dominated his mind was what could he do about what happened tonight? He hadn't asked to be drawn into this fight. In fact, he had left the Air Force Special Operations Command so that he wouldn't have to fight anymore. His days of ringing ears and dodging projectiles were supposed to be over."

"But now they had brought the fight back to him. They attacked his people. They had killed his friend."

These thoughts are the genisis of his return to special ops and the tracking down of the people responsible. The story spins out in a believable and compelling fashion and is very difficult to put down.

An interesting sidelight to this book is that Elam and his co-author are committed Christians. Their views on religion are shared in this work without being preachy or over bearing. They also have managed to write a book about some very tough people doing a very good job without using any profanity whatsoever. I was about a quarter of the way into the book before it dawned on me that I did not think they had used any swear words. Their committment to that shows that it can be done without distracting from the telling of the story.

This is a book that deserves to be read. I hope you do so and spread the word.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Read It on Monday Night, January 19, 2008

By	Zechristof "zechristof" (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

Combine Air Force Special Ops, professional football, and a series of terrorist attacks launched by a deep undercover Muslim fanatic, and you have the red-blooded American tale of Monday Night Jihad. The terrorist attacks are launched against the Mall of America in Minneapolis and against a large stadium where a Monday night professional football game is about to be played. The counterattacks by the Special Ops teams take place in Europe. The denouement occurs in SoCal on the day of the Super Bowl. You can't get much better than that. The prose is about 8th grade level and quite smooth. There are no gratuitous sex scenes, and the main character is a born-again practicing Christian. The violence is gripping but not excessively graphic. This book is therefore a recommended read for mid-high and high school age males. Jason Elam is the veteran kick specialist of the Denver Broncos. His co-author, Steve Yohn, has a real gift for light action prose. You can read this book easily in one evening. Enjoy!