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Summary
Summary
A former soldier turned movie star turned spy must stop a catastrophic nuclear weapons deal.
This gripping thriller from Thomas Caplan propels readers around the globe-from Hollywood to Rome, the Black Sea to the Mediterranean-and to the very brink of nuclear abyss.
The novel's charismatic hero, former covert operative Ty Hunter, has become, almost by accident, the number one film star in the world. When he is recruited on a clandestine mission to thwart the transfer of nuclear warheads into rogue hands, he must deploy every skill he has as an actor, soldier, and spy. Donning his fame as a disguise, Ty matches wits and muscle with the enigmatic billionaire Ian Santal and his nefarious protégé Philip Frost-two supremely sophisticated adversaries- even as he falls in love with the entrancing young woman closest to them both, the jewelry designer Isabella Cavill.
In prose that is both elegant and powerful, The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen gives us a breakneck parable of good and evil-and a hero in the tradition of James Bond and Jason Bourne, who is sure to become an icon of the genre.
Author Notes
Thomas Caplan , a founder of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, is the author of three previous novels, Line of Chance, Parallelogram , and Grace and Favor . He lives in Maryland.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Leading man Ty Hunter, "the number one box-office star in the world," uses his good looks, acting ability, and celebrity the way other action heroes use their ninja warrior and advanced weaponry skills in this well-crafted but subdued thriller from Caplan (Grace and Favor). At the Cannes film festival, Ty attends a party aboard a yacht owned by a wealthy businessman, Ian Santal, who with the help of Philip Frost, an American in Russia working to decommission surplus nuclear weapons, has managed to steal three of the nukes. Soon after the party, where Ty falls under the spell of Ian's ward, the beautiful Isabella Cavill, the U.S. president asks Ty, a former covert operative, to lead an investigation into the theft of the nukes. The rather tepid action that follows will lead readers to hope for more gunplay, explosions, and thrills in Ty's next adventure. Former president Bill Clinton, a roommate of the author's at Georgetown University, provides an introduction. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Line of Chance, 1979, etc.) adventure novel shoots for high concept by assigning hero duties to a soldier turned film star turned spy. Ty Hunter is an accidental actor who made it big in Tinseltown. He was a special-opstested military intelligence officer recovering from injuries when he met a film producer. But Caplan doesn't rush Hunter into play. First there's a stop in Kansas City to meet Wilhelm Claussen, owner of an international construction company. Claussen's ready to back out of a deal with a Russian group. The scene shifts to a missile installation near Russia's Sea of Azov where warheads are being removed. Next it's the Cannes film festival. There Ty enters the narrative and encounters Ian Santal, once a science guru, once a money manipulator, and now a billionaire financier. Also on the scene are Santal's protege, Philip Frost, part of the official nuclear-weapons watchdog team at Azoz, and Isabella Cavill, celebrated jewelry designer, Santal's goddaughter and the novel's requisite love interest. Ty is next called to Camp David to meet the president and his top security adviser. They enlist Hunter to go undercover. Rumors are circulating that Santal has nefarious contacts. It develops that Santal's megalomaniacal idea is to assure peace by reframing the balance of nuclear power--while earning a tidy profit. Ty's mission-almost-impossible is to discover if Santal threat is real. Caplan litters the pages with exotic locations, beautiful people and more than enough scene-setting, exposition, sparkling conversation and back story to present a tutorial on the lives of the mega-rich. The denouement comes at Gibraltar, where good guys and bad guys meet aboard Santal's yacht, Surpass. That's a fitting moniker, since everything within the story involves stratospheric superlatives--"sleek furnishings," "most amazing stones," "great eclectic mansion," "far too sophisticated." Characters are stock players, including Middle Easterners with disposable billions, a quartet of computer nerds and a bad guy escaping to plague Hunter in Caplan's next Bondian escapade. An adventure where atmosphere dominates action.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Caplan takes a long time between novels (his last, Grace and Favor, was published in 1998), but this one was definitely worth the wait. It has a kick-ass premise. Ty Hunter, once an intelligence officer and now a major movie star (it's a lot more plausible than it sounds), is tasked by the U.S. president to find out whether billionaire Ian Santel has anything to do with some nukes stolen by a now-deceased Russian colonel. The novel boasts great, James Bond-style supporting characters the colorful Santel; his alluring goddaughter, Isabella Cavill, who designs expensive jewelry and seems to have designs on Ty; Santel's protege and henchman, Philip Frost. And it has a story that, with its action and intrigue, is guaranteed to keep readers glued to their seats. This is the kind of novel that the superb Trevanian might have written; his Jonathan Hemlock, art professor, mountaineer, and assassin, is surely no more nor less imaginatively conceived and executed than Ty Hunter. An excellent, don't-dare-miss-it kind of thriller.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
After the American CEO of an international construction company pulls out of a Russian deal, he and his family are murdered. Philip Frost, who certifies decommissioned nuclear weapons and is a protege of billionaire international deal broker Ian Santal, engineered the killings as part of a conspiracy to sell nuclear weapons to Middle Eastern buyers. Ty Hunter, a former military intelligence officer, has become Hollywood's number-one star, and his social connections allow him to mingle with Santal and company on Santal's immense yacht in the Mediterranean. Personally recruited as a spy by the U.S. President, Ty is the world's only hope of preventing nuclear disaster. Like James Bond, Ty uses charm and secret government resources to succeed against all odds. VERDICT Caplan's business and international background, reflected in three earlier novels (e.g., Grace and Favor), give authenticity to this fantastic tale of intrigue. Wordiness, brand name-dropping, and sometimes trite dialog mar a thriller that otherwise rivals Ian Fleming in page-turning action and film appeal. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/11; Caplan is also a founder of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction.-Ed.]-Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
