Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz

                                                            

 

 

2015, first published 2013  

This is the tenth and final book in the series.  It is really some back story and gives a first person account of Yassen Gregorovich, whom Alex Rider, his father and his uncle have encountered.

We learn how Gregorovich became as assassin. His parents were involved in something dangerous. This went wrong and he had to fend for himself.  He ends up becoming involved in Scorpia. He is a reluctant killer at first but manages to develop the habit. This novel ends where he allows Alex to escape.

The use of first person is unusual here yet it still doesn’t read quite like a YA book yet. This is supposed to be Gregorovich rereading his diary just before he goes out on a mission.  Only the last couple of chapters are concerned with the present mission. This is the only part where we see Alex. The diary however is a little too sophisticated for a young man, especially in the early parts which he should have written when he was a young boy living on the streets. We have to suspend our disbelief. However, this form does give us some insight into the character.   

There are shades of Oliver Twist. When he lives on the streets he meets a character called Fagin. He is pushed through an open window and gets caught by the man he is trying to rob. This man does indeed take him in. However, he is not as kind as Oilver’s rescuer.    

The book is 405 pages long with blocked text in a simple font.

Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz

                                                               

 

2015, first published 2011  

This is the ninth of the Alex Rider books.  The pace and the tension have increased even more.   There is a marked emotional tension this time as well.  He gets even closer to Jack Starbright and we also learn that there has been a meaningful kiss between him and Sabine Pleasure.   

Alex meets his doppelganger, Julius Grief. Grief is a clone of his father and in a previous novel has been made to look exactly like Alex.  Alex kills for the first time.  He confronts his evil “twin”.

Alan Blunt is about to be replaced by Mrs Jones as the head of M16. Blunt has fallen out of favour with the Prime Minister. At the end of the novel we learn that Blunt has acted in a devious way.  All is not black and white.  We are verging on YA material. Blunt comments that “A German philosopher once wrote that he who fights monsters must take care that he doesn’t become one himself.  Our work is monstrous. I’m afraid there is no escaping it” (427).  Is this foreshadowing something for Alex?  The blurb on the back of the book describes this as “Alex’s final mission”.  There is another book. Will Ale become a monster?

Alex is changed. Jack has died because of becoming involved in one of Alex’s activities. Alex has taken a life.   

We have many adult points of view here. The first 107 pages are about various criminal activities and also some of Alan Blunt’s and Mrs Jones’ work. Blunt and Jones have a significant chapter towards the end of the novel.  We are also in the point of view of Edward Pleasure near the end.

The novel ends on an upbeat note.  Scorpia has been shut down and many of its members are arrested. Alex leaves London, taking very few belongings and goes to live with the Pleasures in San Francisco.

The book is 431 pages long with blocked text in a simple font.

Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz

                                                          

 

 

2015, first published 2009  

     

This is the eighth of the Alex Rider books.  The pace is if anything even faster than in the previous seven volumes.  Alex doesn’t even make it to school on his first day back after a suspension. And whilst he is suspended he has another adventure.   

His relationship with Sabina Pleasure is growing and the his story opens with him on holiday in Scotland with her and her family.  As Alex, Sabina and her father make their way back from a New Year’s Eve party to where they are staying, the car leaves the road and plunges into a freezing lake. Alex recues Edward Pleasure.  

At the party, Alex has upset host Desmond McCain by beating him at a card game.  McCain, an ex-con but born again Christian who has become a priest, may also be upset with Pleasure,  a journalist who  has the nasty habit of uncovering the truth about apparently generous superrich people.

After Alex is kidnapped on his way to school the pace just does not relent.        

The book is 406 pages long, with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are quite long.  

Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz

                                                

 

2015, first published 2007  

This is the seventh of the Alex Rider books.  The stakes get higher still in this one. He has recently t splashed down from his journey into space and has just been reconciled with his guardian Jack Starbright when the Australian secret service employ him.

Alex only accepts this mission because he will be working with Ash, who used to know his father well.  Ash is in fact Alex’s godfather.  Ash has had most of his stomach ripped out and is in constant pain. This is one of the consequences of this sort of work.  MI6 had not been very sympathetic so he went to work for Australian intelligence.

This time his Australian mission gets mixed up with Scorpia again and once more  Alex finds himself working also for MI6. There are gadgets again but mysteriously one crucial one lets him down.  This makes him realises that Ash is in fact a double agent. His other allegiance is to Scorpia.  

Alex learns more about his parents’ death.  Ash was involved.    

Alex is becoming more sexually aware but still in a very subtle way. The novel ends with the reappearance of Sabina Pleasure. She is presented to us as being extremely attractive.   

The book is 398 pages long, with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are quite long.

Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz

                                            

 

2015, first published 2005  

This is the sixth of the Alex Rider books. It starts off with Alex almost recovered form a bullet wound at the end of the last adventure. The bullet only just missed his heart.  He befriends the boy in the next room.  Paul is the son of a very wealthy business man, Nikolei Drevin.  An attempt is made at kidnapping Paul but Alex takes his place.

All is not what it seems. The aggressive activist group Force Three is a set up: Drevin has commissioned it to make him look innocent when he blows up the space hotel he has been working on with the British government.  The project is bleeding money and Drevin wants to get rid of it. He has arranged for it to fall out of the sky and act like a nuclear bomb that will wipe out Washington.  Alex’ a guardian, Jack Starbright, is currently staying in Washington with her parents.  

Drevin also makes several attempts to toughen up his son. The kidnapping is his idea and had it not gone wrong with Alex taking Paul’s place, Paul would have lost a finger.  

Alex, who has still not quite recovered from the operation to remove the bullet, is now sent by the CIA to move the bomb to another part of the space hotel, so that it explodes harmlessly in space.

Anthony Horowitz supplies us with graphic details of what travelling in space would feel like.     

The book is 346 pages long, with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are quite long.

Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz

2015, first published 2004  

This is the fifth of the Alex Rider books. Alex goes over to the dark side. He joins the Scorpia agency which specialises in contract killing and other dark actions.  He has found out that his father used to work for this agency and was killed whilst in service.

However, all is not how it seems. By the end of the book he finds out the full truth about his father and mother.  

Although only a few months have gone by within the books, Alex has matured much in that time and the reader perhaps even more so.  As well as being fast-paced the book deals with some complex emotional issues. Alex wants to know more about his parents. We also see him a little closer to Jack, his young guardian.  

There is a huge cliff-hanger at the end of the story.  Is this the end of Alex? Well we know that it is not as there are another five books.  However, when this book first came out the ending must have been shocking for fans.  For the current reader, the ending just invites us to read the next book so that we can see how Alex gets out of this situation.   

The book is 362 pages long, - considerably longer than earlier books - with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are a quite long.  There are no illustrations.

Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz

2015, first published 2003  

     

This is the fourth of the Alex Rider books. Alex is on holiday in France with his not-quite-girlfriend and family.  He encounters contract killer Yassen Gregorovich whom he has met before. So when an explosion happens at the holiday home Alex assumes it is caused by Yassen trying to kill him.  In fact it is aimed at Sabine’s father who has discovered some secrets about pop star Damian Gray. 

Damian Gray has a reputation for being generous and has donated millions to charity. Yet Gray has a disturbing agenda; he wishes to kill off the populations of countries that produce drugs.  He claims he is being cruel to be kind. 

In this novel Rider acts alone and MI6 becomes involved too late. 

Sabine and her family relocate to the US at the end of the novel and as Gregorovich dies he tells Rider something awful about his father’s past.    

We read a little more about Jack in this novel than in the previous ones. 

The stakes have been raised yet again.  Alex seems to be growing older with his reader.    

The book is 331 pages long, with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are quite long.

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz

2015, first published 2002  

This is the third of the Alex Rider books.   Alex makes an enemy of a triad that he is investigating undercover by being a ball-boy at Wimbledon.  To hide him he is sent away on a mission to work with the CIA.  This actually puts him in more danger than he was from the triad and the two CIA agents with whom he is working are killed.    

        

There is pace a plenty in this novel, possibly even more than in the first two books.  On the cover the novel is again described as “Action, Adrenaline, Adventure.”  Alex remains a likeable and believable character, however.  We get to know him better in each book.  In this one there is almost a love interest.  Alex is maturing with his readers. 

This is almost James Bond for children and in fact Anthony Horowitz has been involved in creating further James Bond stories.  Alex is given various “toys” to help him with his mission. 

The book is 327 pages long, - so longer than the first two books - with blocked text and an adult but simple font. The chapters are a little longer than in the first book.  There are no illustrations.