The Christmas Special

By: David Hearne

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Christmas Special is a thought provoking thriller revolving around a series of Christmas morning terrorist attacks. Beside the death and destruction wrought by these horrific attacks, the selected day of execution could darken the sacred celebration of Christ's birth for years to come. The story is about love, hate, murder juxtaposed against the beauty, good will, and magic of Christmas. The Christmas Special is a book of contemporary realism that is enlightening, sad, scary and very engaging. Through the voices and actions of its characters; it evolves into being a frightening speculative piece of fiction. The story is told in a sequence of character monologues, diary extracts, police reports, interviews and news reports all woven together in a surprisingly old, but refreshing novelistic technique. The unique story telling method add immensely to The Christmas Special’s realism and makes it often difficult to separate the fiction from the many real events woven into it. The novel’s adeptness in blending current with fictional events creates a sobering reality of a tragedy whose probability of occurring becomes frighteningly realistic. One of the primary characters in the novel is a 16-year-old Muslim girl named Sheeva, who falls in love with a 19-year-old agnostic American boy. Sheeva’s father, Ali Hasson, is an Afghanistan doctor given political asylum in America because of the assistance he provided US forces during the onset of the war. Unknown to most, however, is the fact that Ali is a closet Islamic terrorist leader intent on orchestrating an attack on America more devastating than that of nine eleven. The targets of the terrorists are 3 nuclear power plants and numerous hospitals and churches. Another dark side of Sheeva's father is his habitual beating of his daughter because of her westernized behavior and relationship with an unbeliever. After succumbing to numerous beatings, Sheeva runs away from home. It is during her escape that she accidently discovers her father is the architect of a major terrorist plot scheduled to occur on Christmas morning. When she and her boyfriend Jason try to alert officials, they are met with the fact that if they admit their relationship, nineteen year old Jason would face being arrested for harboring Sheeva, a sixteen year old runaway, statutory rape, lascivious conduct with a minor and numerous other charges. Conviction of these charges, would label Jason as a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. The Romeo and Juliet couple are faced with the moral dilemma of saving thousands of lives, but having their relationship and lives destroyed by a legal quagmire; or stay quiet about her father's terrorist ambitions, allowing Sheeva and her boyfriend to stay together and avoid him facing charges about their illicit relationship. The reader is thrust into this unenviable dilemma this young couple face in trying to choose between helping to save thousands and going to jail or saying nothing and knowing their silence helped bring on the death of many.