Friday, July 31, 2020

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.

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