Skeleton Key - Softcover

Anthony Horowitz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0744590078 ISBN 13: 9780744590074

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Sharks. Assassins. Nuclear bombs. Alex Rider's in deep water.Reluctant teenage superspy Alex Rider is useful to MI6 in ways an adult could never be. Now they need his help once again.But a routine reconnaissance mission at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships sets off a terrifying chain of events for Alex that sees him on the run from a murderous Chinese Triad gang. Forced to hide out, Alex is sent to Cayo Esqueleto - Skeleton Key - an island near Cuba. Waiting for him there is General Alexei Sarov - a coldly insane Russian with explosive plans to rewrite history.Alex faces his most dangerous challenge yet. Alone, and equipped only with a handful of ingenious gadgets, Alex must outwit Sarov, as the seconds tick away towards the end of the world...

About this title

About the Author

Anthony Horowitz is an extremely popular and prolific author. His books include Groosham Grange and its sequel The Unholy Grail; Granny; The Switch; The Devil and his Boy; the Diamond Brothers trilogy: The Falcon's Malteser, South by South East and Public Enemy Number Two; and the bestselling Stormbreaker, nominated for the 2001 Children's Book Award, and its sequel Point Blanc. Among his many TV credits are Murder Most Horrid, Midsomer Murders, Poirot and Murder in Mind. He is married with two children and lives in north London.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-10-Fans of Horowitz's Stormbreaker (2001) and Point Blank (2002, both Philomel), and newcomers to the series alike, will not be disappointed with this rip-roaring escapade featuring the 14-year-old spy. Trying to return to a "normal" life as a schoolboy after a mere four weeks since his last MI6 adventure, Alex Rider is recruited right off the soccer field to check out some suspicious goings-on at Wimbledon. This assignment catapults him into a series of life-threatening episodes, such as coming face to face with a great white shark, dodging bullets as he dives off a burning boat, and being tied to a conveyor belt that is moving toward the jaws of a gigantic grindstone in an abandoned sugar factory. Soon the teen is single-handedly taking on his most dangerous enterprise yet. His mission is nothing short of saving the world from a nuclear attack, engineered by the psychopathic and egomaniacal former commander of the Russian army. Alex is armed only with a few specially designed gadgets, which are disarmingly age-appropriate: a Gameboy that doubles as a Geiger counter, a cell phone whose aerial shoots out a drugged needle that is activated by pressing 999, a Tiger Woods figurine that doubles as a small grenade when its head is twisted just so. This page-turning thriller leaves readers breathless with anticipation. When at last Alex returns home, his love interest, Sabina Pleasure, asks where he has been. "Well, I was, sort of- busy," he replies in a classic, understated, James Bond kind of way.
Elizabeth Fernandez, Brunswick Middle School, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0744590078
• ISBN 13: 9780744590074
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1