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HOMELAND: SAUL'S GAME
by Andrew Kaplan
William Morrow, October 2014
352 pages
$14.99
ISBN: 0062315455


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

If you're a hard-core Homeland fan, or just need a fix between seasons, the latest Homeland book might fit the bill. A prequel to the show, HOMELAND: SAUL'S GAME takes place in 2009, before Marine Nick Brody's "rescue."

Brody does figure in this story, as we see his life as a prisoner of al-Qaida terrorist Abu Nazir. We also see flashbacks to his previous life, as the son of a brutal Marine father, and his high school romance with Jessica, the woman he marries. We come to see Brody's turning point from Marine to traitor, and the reasons behind it.

But the story is really about CIA operative Carrie Mathison and her boss, Saul Berenson, who at this point in the story is the agency's Middle East division chief. They are on the hunt for Abu Nazir, and plan a special operations mission into the compound where they believe him to be hiding. But when they get there, they find that he has fled just hours before. After a series of other mishaps, they come to believe that there's someone within that's leaking information to the enemy. In order to find the mole, Saul sends Carrie on a dangerous mission.

Like the TV show, this book (the second Homeland novel) is full of twists and turns. It's not quite as riveting as the show, and the author keeps bringing up Carrie's bipolar disorder at almost every turn, in a rather clunky way. If you aren't a Homeland fan, this book is not the best place to start. If you're already a fan, and looking for more, SAUL'S GAME provides some interesting background—and a little more insight—into the characters.

§ Lourdes Venard is a newspaper editor in Long Island, N.Y.

Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, November 2014

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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