Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen : A Novel (9781101565766)
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Authors: Thomas Caplan
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THE SPY WHO JUMPED OFF THE SCREEN
Thomas Caplan
Introduction by President Bill Clinton
VIKING
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in 2012 by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Oscar Caplan and Sons, Inc., 2012
Introduction copyright © William Jefferson Clinton, 2012
All rights reserved
Publisher's Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Caplan, Thomas.
The spy who jumped off the screen : a novel / Thomas Caplan; introduction by President Bill Clinton.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-101-56576-6
1. Motion picture actors and actressesâFiction. 2. Intelligence officersâFiction. 3. Nuclear terrorismâFiction. I. Title.
PS3553.A584S69 2012
813'.54âdc23
2011032992
Designed by Alissa Amell
Set in Spectrum Mt Std
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For Diana, Hugo, Isabella, Alex, George and Octavia
in limine
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All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts . . .
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William Shakespeare
As You Like It
Act II, Scene 7
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INTRODUCTION BY PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON
I have been an ardent fan of thrillers for about forty years now. Good thrillers are a remarkably diverse lot. They may be long or short, set in the present, the future, the near or distant past, gritty crime stories, high-tech spy adventures, explorations of the means and motives of terrorists, or old-fashioned political tales of the soul-eating conflicts between power and principle. For all their differences, thrillers succeed when the action is gripping, the characters are compelling and the plot moves rhythmically, all within a story that both informs and entertains.
When reading really good ones we can hear the spoken words, see the scenery, know the characters and feel the blows, bullets and bombs. I've always wanted to write one, but so far my life has permitted me only the pleasure of reading as many as I can and, in the process, of coming to know a good one when I see it.
I think Thomas Caplan's
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen
is a very good one. It confronts what is arguably the greatest threat currently facing mankindâthe proliferation of nuclear weapons and the possibility that they could fall into the hands of terrorists prepared to use themâand does so not with clichés but originality. And it has an original, appealing hero in Ty Hunter, a movie star and ex-military expert in Special Operations. Hunter could have stepped out of Alfred Hitchcock's imagination. Drawn into a crisis almost by accident, then pressed by the President to resolve it, Ty performs with the élan of a celebrated Hollywood actor and the skill and courage of a veteran of covert ops. As one character puts it, “It's as though Matt Damon really were Jason Bourne.” For me, an even more apt analogy would be if Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig all joined James Bond in Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Where did Tommy Caplan come up with this idea: an undercover operative whose cloak is his own celebrity? It is a particularly compelling conceit in an age so obsessed with and easily distracted by such celebrity. With so many people grasping for fame, whether from talent, political success, physical attributes or outrageous conduct; with armies of photographers, tabloid journalists and political Web sites determined to eradicate the last vestiges of privacy by forcing even more fame on celebrities; and with millions of the rest of us savoring the rise and fall of celebrities that permeates all our media, the idea of celebrity as a cover for what is really going on is a guaranteed winner.
Of course, Hunter's exploits bear some resemblance to the real-life experiences of famous actors, including Leslie Howard and Sterling Hayden, as well as gifted writers Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming, and other artists whose double lives remain unknown. Yet Hunter is different because he is neither a well-intentioned amateur nor a full-time professional. Instead, he is a genuine patriot with great ability in two very different crafts because his life has been defined by two sudden strokes of fortune: the almost fatal injuries that ended his military career and the miraculous recovery that launched his life as a movie star. Predictably, his suffering of and recuperation from deep wounds and disfigurement have made him stronger, more interesting and more connected to the action in his films than most stars could ever be.
As it so often does to the heroes of Hitchcock films, danger finds Ty Hunter rather than the other way around. As he stumbles into, then struggles to prevent a transfer of nuclear warheads, we are introduced to a fascinating set of characters in a variety of circumstances, all presented with Caplan's critical eye and voracious appetite for details that provide both color and insight. We learn about the street plans of great cities, the layout of a fortress on Gibraltar, the history of ancient European buildings, the engineering of modern mega-yachts, the furnishing of elegant hotel suites, the consumption and pleasure of lavish meals and the making and marketing of fine jewelry. We also learn about where fissile materials and bombs might be stored and how they might be smuggled. And in some of the book's best written and most exciting scenes we follow a group of adventurous young high-tech wizards who employ cutting-edge technology to help Ty Hunter track and thwart the transfer of weapons and money.
Caplan's characters include two compelling villains, Ian Santal and Philip Frost, with outsized egos, complicated motives, interesting life stories and clever self-justifications; the love interest, Isabella Cavill, closely tied to both Santal and Frost yet saved from supporting their designs by her savvy, rebellious, incorruptible character and, inevitably, her attraction to Hunter; and a host of memorable lesser figures whose words, actions and motives give the story dimension and authenticity.
As
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen
unfolds, the reader visits, with a knowledgeable guide, places most of us will never go or fully understand even if we do, as well as fantastically rich and powerful figures who are part of the twenty-first century's global plutocracy, their lives conducted far from the experiences, concerns, and values of the vast majority of us. These particular plutocrats shield themselves and their dealings behind high walls of secrecy with tightly locked gates. Caplan pries them open, revealing a combustible mix of idle indulgence and moral arrogance, a callous disregard for the lives of lesser mortals and an unlimited capacity to be self-serving while pretending to be high-minded.
What we discover is ironic: a culture of privilege in which the biggest beneficiaries provide both fodder for what's wrong with our world and foot soldiers determined to destroy much of it, the good with the bad. No one gets out of
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen
completely unsullied, not even Ty Hunter. But this novel will make you glad all over again that there are people like him and his compatriots who risk their lives to defeat history's latest fling with the perversely imagined virtues of mass killing.
I first met the author when we were both incoming freshmen at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and had been assigned rooms a few doors from each other on the second floor of Loyola Hall. In my memoir,
My Life
, I recalled that the first time I met him he had a large rocking chair in his room and that “he told me he wanted to be a writer.” We had both been enthusiastic supporters of the Kennedy presidency and, almost a year later, remained distraught by its tragic end. While John Kennedy's example had inspired me to enter politics and government service, his eloquence had inspired Tommy to put pen to paper. Our friendship was a natural fit: a would-be writer with an interest in politics and a would-be politician with an appreciation of literature. In the more than forty-seven years since, we've learned a lot from each other and shared some great times.
Our first campaign together took place a month or so later, when I ran for freshman class president. I can still remember the candidates' debate in Gaston Hall and the prep before it. Tommy was there, giving me good lines and clever retorts, something he has done ever since, including in the preparations for my presidential inaugural addresses. It was a gratifying role reversal when he asked me to read and comment on an early draft of this novel. He knew I tended to read one thriller after another and probably thought that, in the process, I had become a pretty good judge of what makes a great one.
Tommy's language has always been more formal, less colloquial than mine, reflecting, in part, the different regions and cultures in which we grew up. Still, I have always appreciated the telling details, pitch-perfect conversations and beguiling casts of characters that marked his three previous novels,
Line of Chance,
Parallelogram
and
Grace and Favor,
and are abundant in this one as well. The only problem I found in that early draft had to do with its pacing and tempo. Appropriate to the earlier novels, I thought it too languid for a thriller. With his permission, I recommended cuts of a few thousand words of dialogue and description in order to maintain the momentum of a terrific story. Tommy was gracious enough to say that he found these helpful.
Edits aside, the moment I encountered Ty Hunter, I knew the author had found someone who captured the zeitgeist. As the President who recruits Ty back to action tells him: “You're not what we call an âinvisible' exactly. Rather, you're invisible precisely because you are so damned visible. You've a reason to be anywhere, everywhere.” His fame as an actor and global heartthrob gives Hunter access to places and people other covert operatives might not be able to reach while diverting suspicion from himâat least for a while. What sets him apart from conventional heroes of the genre is that where they would stand out, he fits in. This affords the reader a bird's-eye view of what characters are up to before they understand Ty's motives. Eventually, of course, some find those out. Then it's a good thing that, like all the best thriller heroes, Ty can take care of himself.
The thought and effort its author has put into
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen
are commensurate to the stakes involved, which warrant a reader's time. As I said above, no more important problem confronts us than nuclear proliferation, given the shadowy groups that have the inclination and ability to use them. The leaders of such groups can be difficult to identify, capture or kill. And because they are not part of a nation-state and hide in remote places or among civilian populations, the traditional deterrent of retaliation is meaningless.
This is a tale of the daunting challenge of separating the guilty from the innocent in a world where the two intermingle, and of thwarting the former's plans. From the moment we come upon each of the varied and colorful characters who populate this story we ask ourselves the same questions. Who are the real villains? What are their motives? How do they rationalize their actionsâto others and themselves? Few of us will guess correctly in every instance. That's the fun of fiction, but the story also reminds us that in real life such mistakes have consequences. We must keep nuclear weapons from getting into hands that are prepared to use them. If we fail, our world will not be the same thereafter.
There is wisdom as well as considerable pleasure to be extracted from the stylish, involving, utterly contemporary puzzle that is this novel. From the lush suburbs of Kansas City to long abandoned missile silos beside the Strait of Kerch, from Hollywood to Prague, London to Morocco, along Spain's Costa del Sol and at every stop on its rapid-fire itinerary,
The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen
will keep you under its spell and stiffen your resolve to make the world a safer place for our children.