Grace and Favor

A sensitive Yankee risks his life to join the British ruling class in this overweening financial thriller from anglophile Caplan (Line of Chance). Narrator John Brook, an American merchant banker living in London, has led a charmed life. Husband to the beautiful Lady Julia, father to twins with adorable accents, he spends his weeks in the city and weekends at Castlemoreland, his wife's family estate--where (he discovers to his dismay) aristocratic country life costs more than the average aristocrat, or merchant banker, has to spend. Fortunately, John is working on a deal that will leave him and his partners ""wildly"" rich if they succeed. But things have begun to go wrong: John learns from an overheard conversation that Julia is afraid of someone. Then, after two mysterious deaths in the family, John is accused in the press of insider trading (he was set up), and the ensuing scandal causes the investors to pull out of his big deal. A phone call from a rich, enigmatic investor leads John on a clandestine chase around the globe in hopes of salvaging the situation. For all the faux-Jamesian atmospherics (the ""butterscotch glow"" of lamps, the ""depilious torsoes"" of young men), and despite his sharp consciousness of class, Caplan has written a plain old American thriller, and a wobbly one at that. Not only are the relationships bloodless and sentimental, but the main character is impossible to believe in: when he isn't spouting transatlantic aper us, he's walking into what should be an obvious trap. (Nov.) FYI: Caplan is a founder of the PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction.