Book: Skeleton Key
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Rating: 5-6/10
Recommended Age: 10 - 16/17
In the third book of the series Alex has settled back into normal life when Crawley turns up asking for his help. Despite Alex's reservations it isn't even a proper mission and Alex is talked into it.A break in was found at Wimbledon but nothing was taken or added.He gets to spend a fortnight as a ball boy at Wimbledon whilst keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. And soon enough he See's a Chinese security Guard acting oddly , he follows the guard as much as possible and soon realises that the guard is watching the player whilst talking on a fake mobile but then he makes a basic mistake the guard realises he's being followed and tricks Alex into following him to a deserted part of the complex and then tries to kill him. Fortunately Alex survives but now the Chinese Triads are out to get him. He gets attacked whilst surfing with friends in Cornwall and almost drowns.
This turns out to be perfect for MI6 who use it as a new way to get him to accept a mission whilst they try to stop the triads killing him, he's left with little choice over a mission that seems to be just relaxing in the sun whilst C.I.A agents investigate a ex- Russian general Alexei Sarov on the island "Cayo Esqueleto" aka "Skeleton Key ". Something is wrong but as usual no one is giving Alex the full picture.
Worse the CIA Agents take a instant dislike to him,test him ruthlessly and the blame him for a meeting that went horribly wrong despite him saving Troy's life.
As the agents prepare to go in to the generals fortress of a house through a underwater cave everything goes bad. The agents disappear, Alex goes looking for them and gets attacked by a shark whilst simultaneously finding out why the agents didn't return then he got captured by the generals men.
Still in the dark over what's happening the General confuses Alex even more by offering to adopt him and have him as a son as he changes Russia and the world forever with the use of a single nuclear bomb.
what can Alex do to stop the plan as the seconds tick away to the end of the world?
Although the story line of this book is very good and certainly there are good ideas concepts and events through out i didn't find this book as gripping or exciting as the first and was actually bored in some places. That said it is still an ok book in a pretty good series so don't be discouraged from buying this and any others.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Reviewer
UK :
USA:
Germany:
This book is truly thrilling and the action is pretty intense. It is pretty good with a lot of details I would've forgotten about. However, i think it would've been helpful if you stated that this book is part of an adventurous series.
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