Book info

• Title Skeleton Key
• Author Anthony Horowitz
• Year 2002
• Genre Young Adult

In the third book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, teenage spy Alex faces his most dangerous challenge yet. Teaming up with the CIA, Alex must go to a remote Caribbean island called Skeleton Key, where the insane general Sarov is hatching explosive plans to re-write history.

Thoughts

I read the first two Alex Rider books quite quickly, and had intended to wait on this one. However, I fancied an easy-to-read adventure and that’s exactly what these books deliver. They are quite literally James Bond as a teenager but that’s great because you know exactly what to expect and how things are going to work.

The scenes, including the action ones, are really easy to imagine - in this particularly the moody Cornish beaches, the overpowering magnet, even the strawberry freezer at Wimbledon, all very vivid and visual. I enjoyed the tennis introduction, being a Wimbledon fan, it was good to have a sub-plot beyond the main spy business.

It was also good that there were other people in the book suggesting it was crazy to use a boy for this kind of job, echoing my thoughts, but that Alex still seems to prove himself on all occasions. I do wonder if there’s a limit to the number of situations a teen boy might prove useful, but seeing how many books there are in this franchise, I guess there’s still a few to go!

Rating: 4 / 5