Chased by a Chinese Triad, and ending up in Cuba with a Russian General ... an international book! (Skeleton Key - Anthony Horowitz)

Member Name: Markatron

Product:	Skeleton Key - Anthony Horowitz
Date:	27/05/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clever plotline, well written, fast paced

Disadvantages: Sometimes moves a bit fast so some tension is lost

"Skeleton Key" is the third in the Alex Rider series, and, although it is in my opinion the worst of the series so far, it still tells a superb story. On a routine job, Alex finds himself on the run from a Chinese triad gang, and he has to take refuge on Cayo Esqueleto (Skeleton Key), a small island off Cuba. Here, he meets General Alexei Sarov, who he finds has an explosive plan to rewrite history. Only Alex can stop these plans from going ahead, and it's never as easy as it seems.

This book is another superb one from Horowitz. It really enables you to get inside Alex's head and almost become the teenage spy. The main advantages of this book is its fast pace and intricate, intelligent twists. The intelligence of Horowitz's writing is shown in that Alex starts as a Wimbledon ball boy and it seems almost inevitable that he becomes the only way to stop an evil genius end the world.

Although fast pace is a good asset for any story, in parts I felt that the pace was too fast, so some suspense was not maintained where it could have been. Moreover, the action comes in too quickly at the start for me, and this does not enable us to contrast Alex's school life to his totally alternative spy life. I thought this juxtaposition was a great feature of the first two books in the series, and it was almost lost in this one.

If the fast-paced sort of book is for you, then you may still like this book. I just felt that the ideas transformed too quickly and I often found myself reading back to see how one idea managed to make it into another one.

Despite this, I still feel that the book is excellent. Anthony Horowitz is a superb author and this is another good book from him. I would strongly recommend it to teenagers in particular, as the whole series is based around a superb idea for this target audience.

This book retails at a maximum of £5.99 (paperback) in decent stores, but you can quite easily find it for cheaper, so do hunt around for bargains before you buy it. Books from this series would make excellent birthday or Christmas presents for any teenagers or people as young as the age of 10. I always asked for one of these books when I was younger, so any parents out there, I suggest you strongly consider getting books from the Alex Rider series for your children, as they are all superb.

Summary: Superb book - I look forward to the rest of the series