The story begins simply enough, and with the tried and true courtroom drama characters that you’ve come to know and love. All the elements are here: the talented young lawyer with the drinking problem, his beautiful daring colleague who’s anxious to prove herself, and the quintessential ‘case of a lifetime‘; defending an innocent henchman of Saddam Hussein’s fascist regime. Leibig’s set up is familiar, but like any good magician, his opening act is merely a demonstration of his mastery of the genre. It’s the second act; the first meeting between the Malcolm Heinlein and his client, Jabbouri, where Leibig takes you to places that you’ve never been before and his revelations will strike you like lightening out of the clear desert sky.

It’s difficult to go into the plot in-depth without giving too much away, but Malcolm’s innocent client looks just like Saddam Hussein, and even served as one of his doubles during Hussein’s reign. As the team of lawyers begin working out a plea bargain they uncover a heinous plot that the CIA has been cooking for a long time, with tendrils reaching as far back as Malcolm’s birth mother, his tenure as a law student, and even his personal relationships. Even where the maze gets excruciatingly thick in later chapters, Leibig keeps the dots connected and nothing feels forced or needlessly convoluted.

If the novel has a weak spot, it’s the packaging that Arknik Books saddles it with. This is one book that should not be judged by its cover. A simple ugly photo of Saddam Hussein with a poorly Photoshopped noose around his neck. There is an inexplicable picture of two Apache helicopters on the back (conveying the idea that there is a war and Apaches are there). Not to mention, one of the quotes isn’t cited. The title itself does nothing to help things. “Saving Saddam” speaks to the CIA’s endgame (as well as giving away the novel’s best twist) rather than encompassing Malcolm’s entire journey. Should I even bring up its clumsy use of alliteration?

Looking past the cover, “Saving Saddam” is a terrific novel about the trials and conspiracies revolving around our nation’s presence in Iraq. It performs a precision balancing act of handling its touchy subject matter with respect without becoming exploitative. “Saving Saddam” has the potential to do the same thing for the War on Terror that “The Da Vinci Code” did for the Knights Templar, renewing public interest in a war that‘s gone cold after six years of twenty-four hour news coverage. Leibig’s novel is a throat-clencher that stands against a realistic backdrop so well that it becomes difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends, and makes you want to keep reading long after it’s finished.