Andrew Kaplan Books in Order

If you want his signature spy hero: Scorpion → Scorpion Betrayal → Scorpion Winter → Scorpion Deception
If you like CIA tie-ins and character backstory: Carrie's Run → Saul's Game
If you want a newer standalone thriller: Blue Madagascar
If you want his earlier standalones: Hour of the Assassins → Dragonfire → War of the Raven
If you want something personal and lighter: Once Upon a Villa

Andrew Kaplan was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 18, 1941, and grew up there. He went to Stuyvesant High School, studied at Brooklyn College, and very early on seems to have been pulled toward places where history was moving fast.

Before novels took over, he had already lived several lives. He served in the U.S. Army, then worked as a freelance journalist and war correspondent in Europe and Africa, including time in Paris writing for the International Herald Tribune. That reporting life put him close to conflict, politics, and the kind of moral gray zones that later became the air his thrillers breathe.

He didn't come to spy fiction from a quiet room.

Israel was another major part of his story. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Kaplan served in the Israeli Army. As a student leader, he helped start what was then called the University of the Negev, later Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and he was also involved in the Israeli Olympic fencing team. He later graduated from Tel Aviv University and went on to earn an MBA from Oregon State University.

Back in the United States, he spent years in the technology world and built a technical communications company. That mix of reporting, military experience, travel, and business gave him a lot to draw on when he turned seriously to fiction. His first novel, Hour of the Assassins, came out in 1980 and set the pattern for much of what followed: global stakes, hunted people, and intelligence work that never feels clean.

For many readers, the natural entry point is Scorpion. The book introduced the ex-CIA operative known as Scorpion and eventually grew into a longer run with Scorpion Betrayal, Scorpion Winter, and Scorpion Deception. These are big, restless spy novels, full of border crossings, shifting loyalties, and men in suits who are often more dangerous than the people they are chasing.

His standalones show a wider spread of interests. Dragonfire heads into Southeast Asia. War of the Raven folds espionage into World War II Argentina. Much later, Blue Madagascar returned to the international-thriller mode with a new lead, Casey Ramirez, and a plot that starts with a political shock and keeps widening.

Kaplan was also chosen to write two official prequel novels for Homeland, Carrie's Run and Saul's Game. Those books let him work close to Carrie Mathison and Saul Berenson before the television series begins, which suits him well. He is especially good at writing people who are smart, driven, and never fully sure who inside the system can be trusted.

Trust, or the lack of it, is one of his favorite engines.

In recent years he has kept publishing and has shown another side of himself as well. Once Upon a Villa is a memoir about the time he, his wife, and their young son lived on the French Riviera while he was writing Dragonfire. He has also spoken about living in Southern California. It all fits the larger picture: Andrew Kaplan's books are written by someone who has had a long, unusually eventful life, and who knows how to turn that experience into momentum on the page.