Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure) [Hardcover]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Alex Rider Adventure

Alex Rider has been through a lot for his fourteen years. He's been shot at by international terrorists, chased down a mountainside, and stood face-to-face with evil. Twice, young Alex has saved the world. And twice, he has almost been killed doing it. But now Alex faces something even more dangerous. The desperation of a man who has lost everything he cared for: his country and his only son. A man who just happens to have a nuclear weapon and a serious grudge against the free world. To see his beloved Russia once again be a dominant power, he will stop at nothing. Unless Alex can stop him first.

The phenomenon that is the Alex Rider series returns with pulse-quickening action as, for the first time, Britain's MI6 and America's CIA unite forces. Be glad Alex is on our side.

Editorial Reviews

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.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-9. Fourteen-year-old British secret agent Alex Rider, last heard from in Point Blank (2002), is back in another adventure. This time he's on an island near Cuba where he's up against a retired Russian general who plans to set off a nuclear device and, in the ensuing world chaos, take over the Russian government and restore the Soviet Empire. The general takes a shine to Alex once they meet, however, and he offers to adopt him as his son. Of course, this is the man's fatal mistake; Alex is there at the crucial moment to thwart the general's plans. This series unabashedly lifts details from the James Bond formula (minus the vodka martinis and casual sex) and transfers them to a novel for young adults. Yet, the Bond formula is the most successful in entertainment history, and there's no doubting the appeal of this action-packed spy novel. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (April 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399237771
• ISBN-13: 978-0399237775
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,835 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

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book in a brilliant series..., June 14, 2003

By 

Tom Harrison (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

Skeleton Key, the sequel to Stormbreaker and Point Blanc, is surely the best book in this gripping teen spy series. Before you read it, however, make sure you read the others first so as to understand the story.

Just a month after his previous adventure at an exclusive school in the French Alps, sixteen-year-old Alex Rider is attempting to return to a normal life in London. But this is a wish quickly forgotten as an M16 agent recruits him for a mission during a school soccer game.
He is soon over in the USA, and taking on the role of the son of two up-tight and by-the-book CIA officers.

Together, they must infiltrate the home of an ex-Russian army commander. Trouble is, his house is an island in Cuba and Americans aren't exactly welcome in that part of the world.

Armed with some outrageous and extremely useful gadgets disguised as toys, Rider must soon try to win the trust of the Russian on his own, but finds himself in a seemingly losing battle against the rich and powerful man.

Alex discovers the Russian's deadly plot to take over the world, but will a young boy be able to stop him?

A terrific book that will having you struggle to put it down as you dive into the world of international spies, crazy military men and truly gripping suspense.

I gave this book 5 stars, and it deserves 6, so read it now and find out why!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Skeleton Key, May 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Alex Rider) (Paperback)

I read the first two Alex Rider books and enjoyed them very much. However, in my opinion, the quality of these books has decreased as the series progresses. I have not read the fourth or fifth book, but after my disappointing experience with the third I'm not sure I will.

The first book is, by far, in my opinion, the best in the series. It was creative, induvidual, and engaging. The second book was a good enough book, but it lacked some of the creativity of the first- for example, 'Dr. Grief' is not the most imaginative name.

The third book was most disappointing. It was not particularly engaging, and the plot was typical of other adventure stories. I hope Mr. Horowitz does Alex Rider his alloted justice in the further books of the series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skeleton Key, October 21, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

The story I read was Skeleton Key. The author is Anthony Horowitz. The main characters were Alex Rider and a guy named Sarvo. The setting is in Russia. The story is based on a teenager who is spy with M-I 6, British intelligence. The problem with Alex is that the guy named Sarvo wants to adopt him. Alex does not want to be adopted. Alex is trying to get away, and Sarvo is getting mad. Sarvo tries to kill Alex. Does he get away? You have to read the book to find out.


I think the book is very will written. If I could give it a 1 out 10 rating, 10 being the best I would give Skeleton Key a 9.5. The reason I liked this book is because I like James Bond. I also like all the cool gadgets he gets. This book's audience I think would be people who like James Bond and people who like action books and movies.