The Final Jihad: When the "Best of the Worst" Finally Come for Us

by Martin Keating

After his family is attacked by terrorists, former naval intelligence officer Jack Stroud joins forces with U.S. government agencies to combat a frightening chain of events

597 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Donna Bowen]

This book is a thriller that I read many years ago. I plan to re-read it soon! I couldn't put it down. I was apprehensive about going into populated areas for some time after reading it!

[Brett T · Rating 1 out of 5]

If Mary Fallin has a brother who writes a book, she will probably not want it to turn out like an earlier Oklahoma GOP-governor-sibling who did. Because that book was the 1996 I-wish-I-was-Tom-Clancy thriller substitute The Final Jihad, by Martin Keating. Martin's brother Frank was Oklahoma's governor from 1995 to 2003; months after he took office the Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by a truck bomb.

And not long after that, brother Martin's manuscript about a terrorist organization mounting attacks against targets on the American mainland, which some accounts say had been mostly finished a few years earlier, found a publisher and hit the shelves with a weighty thud in 1996. That publisher, for the curious, is Logical Figments Books. According to the Library of Congress, the only other title published by Logical Figments Books is Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, the 1995 autobiography of Burt Ward, who played Robin on the 1966-68 TV show Batman.

In any event, Keating's book has provided plenty of fodder for conspiracy-minded folks who believe there is way more to both the Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11 terrorist attacks than public information has disclosed. Keating had worked for several government agencies, and Frank was a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Reagan and first Bush administrations. These experiences are touted to give The Final Jihad an aura of real-world connections, and for all I know Keating had the intelligence stuff and such down to the last jot and tittle.

It doesn't really matter. Keating's hammer-handed writing style, next to which even Clancy's obtuse prose flows like honey, kills a reader's interest quickly. Mine lasted about a hundred pages, or almost a sixth of the way into this doorstop, before flagging and telling me to flip to the end to see who survived. I found out, and then realized I didn't care. As observed before, nobody grabs airport or thriller novels because they want to cavort 'pon the pages amidst the dancing words from the author's lyrical pen. But even by these lower standards, The Final Jihad stinks.

Keating's picture of how this series of terrorist incidents came about is outlined in a three-page expository discourse by the president, and it was probably pretty intriguing at the time. Now, 14 years later and with 9/11 and Iraq in our rearview mirrors and and Afghanistan still in front of us, it seems kind of odd. I won't spoil it, on the off-chance you find yourself stuck reading The Final Jihad and making it all the way through. But if you do make the attempt, be sure to tell me how many pages you get through before flipping to the end.

Original available here.

[Peggy Randall-Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember when Keating's book first came out and I purchased it from a now defunct bookstore in Tulsa. It blew me away - no pun intended and I had an opportunity to visit with the author by phone. Interesting man. In hindsight - "The Final Jihad" (copyright 1996) gives me shivers. Buy it, read it - you won't regret it!

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

Martin Keating is a master storyteller with unique access to government intelligence agencies and clandestine terrorist groups. His brother Frank Keating, currently governor of Oklahoma, is a former FBI agent and assistant secretary of the Treasury who supervised the Secret Service, U.S. Customs, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms ...

Why are...

U.S. and foreign intelligence agents investigating the sources of Martin Keating's deadly accuracy?

"Homegrown" American militias panicking to stop the penetration of their private agendas?

International terrorist cells angrily struggling to plug his access to their secret plans?

Media insiders suspicious of his involvement in terrorist activities?

Shadowy KGB and North Korean operatives seeing personal information about him?

Special-interest Arab groups threatening to disrupt the dissemination of this book?

Death threats becoming regular occurrences?

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I have had it on my list of books to read for a while but it is apparently out of print. I found a copy at the Helmerich Library used-book sale and grabbed it. The book has lots of "inside" information and was published in 1996, so the plot is eerily predictive of 9-11. Very creepy. It is worth reading for that reason. However, I didn't think it was well-written. It jumps around to different points of view every couple of pages, which makes it a little difficult to follow. And 600 pages is a lot of ground to cover. I'm glad I read the book but I don't think it is something I will ever go back and re-read.

[Julie]

This book freaked me out a bit. Alot of the book takes place in Oklahoma and most of the events aren't good. This is one book I couldn't put down. It still gives me chills thinking about some of the events. This is a must read.

[gordon barrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opener.