Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider, No. 8) [Hardcover]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

It's just another day in the life of an average kid. If you're Alex Rider, that is.

A con artist has realized there is big money in charity - the bigger the disaster, the greater the money flow! So that is what he will produce: the biggest disaster known to man, all thanks to genetically modified corn that can release a virus so potent it can knock out an entire country in one windy day. But Alex Rider will face whatever it takes - gunfire, explosions, hand-to-hand combat with mercenaries - to bring down his most dangerous adversary yet.

Often imitated, never equaled, the series that triggered a reading phenomenon is back, exhilarating and addictive as ever.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–10—Alex Rider is only 14, but that hasn't stopped MI6, the British espionage organization, from recruiting him for dangerous missions. Here, Alex is enlisted in a seemingly quick and easy mission of downloading computer data while on a school trip to a lab immersed in the genetic engineering of plants. While there, he discovers a sinister plot involving a criminal turned preacher and philanthropist. As in the earlier installments, the book is chock-full of excitement and suspense from the first page to the last. It starts with a bomb at a nuclear plant in India, and along the way there is a charity black-tie card game, poison needles, car crashes, bullets, and exploding gel pens. Most of the backstory is explained, so no prior knowledge of the earlier books is necessary. Great for reluctant readers.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Alex Rider, teenage British secret service agent, returns. This time, a wealthy villain schemes to make millions by creating disasters and then pocketing the money from false relief agencies. Alex discovers the bad guy’s plan to cause famine in Africa, but he is able to expose the fake philanthropist, although he is nearly fed to hungry crocs in the process. Horowitz's series remains on top of the growing genre of YA novels that feature intelligence agencies employing teenagers. He knows how to pace a thriller and delivers one exciting scene after another. Alex Rider fans will rejoice. Grades 6-9. --Todd Morning

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Philomel; 1 edition (November 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399250565
• ISBN-13: 978-0399250569
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear -- "My father was a very secretive man," he says-- so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.
A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands&. I was an astoundingly large, round child&." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.


Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And&oh yes&there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most exciting yet (a parent's review), November 17, 2009

By 

Julia Flyte - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider, No. 8) (Hardcover)

Crocodile Tears is an excellent addition to the Alex Rider series: fast paced, tense and dead exciting. It picks up two months after Snakehead. Alex is still 14 (although only just) and believes that he's completed his last assignment for MI6.

The book starts off with a bang (literally) as a bomb is exploded in a nuclear power station in India. The action then moves to Scotland where Alex is holidaying with the Pleasure family. He attends a lavish New Year's Eve party in a remote Scottish castle hosted by wealthy philanthropist Desmond McCain, who runs an international charity, First Aid. Alex is disturbed by his first encounter by McCain and wonders if there's a connection when shortly afterwards he narrowly escapes from what he suspects to have been a deliberate car accident.

Back in London, Alex is forced to turn to MI6 for help when a journalist threatens to expose his past. In return MI6 ask him to help them investigate the director of a highly secure GM research centre. Slowly the disparate threads of the story start to come together, but will Alex be able to pass on what he knows before the bad guys catch up with him?

I thought it was an extremely exciting story, a real page turner. It is slightly darker and more complex than others in the series: this is definitely "young adult" territory, although there are also parts which are highly reminiscent of scenes in the previous books. Alex is an appealing hero who is brave and highly resourceful. He has an uncanny ability to keep his cool when he's in danger and pulls off some impressive stunts such as catching a spear in mid air.

Here are some things that parents may like to know:
- There is frequent violence in the book (similar to the previous books in this series). A couple of the villains die in particularly unpleasant ways.
- Alex ends up in a variety of frightening scenarios including being trapped in a car at the bottom of a lake, being dangled over hungry crocodiles and being trapped in a burning building.
- Alex causes the death of two people directly and several more indirectly. While the deaths could be attributed to self-defence, he never shows any signs of remorse or concern at their deaths.
- He also witnesses the deaths of several others, including one individual who has previously saved his life. Again, he shows no particular concern about this.
- No bad language, no romantic scenes.
- Alex is once offered alcohol, which he refuses.
- There are no positive female role models. With the exception of Alex's faithful housekeeper/guardian (and his friends the Pleasures), the women in this book are all either receptionists and nurses, or are emotionless and unpleasant.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thrill a minute!, February 18, 2011

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider) (Paperback)

I have a few favorite series: Harry Potter, Paulsen's Hatchet books, Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Det. Edward X Delaney, John Rain, but I think the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz get my personal award as Favorite of Favorites.

"Crocodile Tears" is the latest and most thrilling entry into the world of 14-year-old secret agent Alex Rider. That's not a typo--Alex is indeed a secret agent and, in fact, was trained from early childhood to assume the role (although he didn't know at the time). He continues to work (for free) for England's M16. I must rephrase: He is tricked into missions for M16. His parents died when he was very young; his Uncle Ian assumed guardianship. Both father and uncle were agents. Ian taught Alex how to do so many practical things (that would later save his life times over), speak several languages, handle foreign travel. On the other hand, one could say that being a secret agent was a genuine talent for Alex, much as painting or music is to others. Being flexible is one ingrained "talent." An example: To escape a particular mountaintop location Alex had to improvise. The only way out was helicopter with none available. He used an ironing board to "sled" down the mountain. Another time he skateboarded down a pier and over and onto a departing boat, barely making the landing, but, of course, always making it.

In every book there is at least one villain, usually two working jointly to commit mayhem, fraud, evil, and violence on many innocent, unsuspecting people. In "Crocodile Tears" Desmond McCain is the villain--philanthropist extraordinaire and bad to the bone marrow! He is the organizer and disperser of millions of dollars that come into his relief agency which goes from hot spot to hot spot to aid people in dire circumstances. The first is a nuclear reactor explosion in India. First on the scene. How great Mr. McCain is! How compassionate! However, the tears he sheds are crocodile tears.

Normally, I don't read reviews before I write mine, but I did this time. Mixed reactions. I agree with those who call this a page-turner, a must-read-long-into-the-night. I did, too. (Not too long ago I read Mark Twain's "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Dover Thrift Editions) and could not read more than a few pages at time before falling asleep.) With "Crocodile Tears"--I read WAY PAST my normal bedtime. Anthony Horowitz knows how to write a thriller!

Other reviewers called this book the worst of the series. On what scale? By what standard? I do agree that the series is taking on a formulaic format, although this book, for the first time, shows human heart in Mr. Blunt, Alex's handler. In previous books he exudes complete indifference to any fate that might happen to Alex, or that is how it seems.

Another reviewer called Horowitz on the horrible women who people his books in his female villainy. But I remind those readers that Alex's girlfriend is quite genuine and kind, that his guardian (a woman just a few years older than Alex) is a perfect role model for any young lady.

What I do protest and the reason I deduct one star is the really over-the-top escapades Alex must experience and, of course, escape. On one hand, I recognize that it IS possible to escape from all these bizarre circumstances, but, on the other hand, not so many and not so likely. They are just TOO incredible in this book. One example at the beginning--that obviously Alex must escape if the story is to continue-- (SPOILER!) is his escape from a Nissan that crashes over a rail on a steep mountain and into a deep, dark loch in the middle of night. Not only does he rescue himself, but he saves his girlfriend's father--all in freezing water. Then miraculously someone is right there to take them to a hospital for hypothermia.

But really, I don't care how extreme the circumstances. Horowitz is a rare and talented writer who can put words and plot lines together to make a reader want to read. That's worthy of recognition and respect. His books may not become classics, but they will endure to take down for a thrill ride when one is old and in the rocking chair and in need of a little action.

18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok book, November 28, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider, No. 8) (Hardcover)

After his last book I felt like he went downhill. Arc Angel was amazing, snakehead was great, this was OK. Something I totally recognized in this book as his care taker gives him gifts he gets a "Barack Obama baseball cap" which I found odd, but brushed it off, as it went deeper into the book part of the bad guys name was "Mccain". Coincidence? + I didn't feel as if this book was as good as the others, I felt it had a bang, but not a very good one. I was able to read it in about 3 hours, and in the end I felt this book didn't go as far as the other ones did.