Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Series #3)

by Anthony Horowitz

Overview

Alex Rider is now an IMDb TV/Amazon Original Series!

Alex Rider is an orphan turned teen superspy who's saving the world one mission at a time—from #1 New York Times bestselling author!

Alex Rider has been through a lot for his fourteen years. He's been shot at by international terrorists, chased down a mountainside on a makeshift snowboard, and has stood face-to-face with pure evil. Twice, young Alex has managed to save 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. Uniting forces with the CIA for the first time, teen spy Alex Rider battles terror from the sun-baked beaches of Miami all the way to the barren ice fields of northernmost Russia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142406144
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/16/2006
Series:	Alex Rider Series , #3
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	41,135
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

About the Author

Anthony Horowitz (anthonyhorowitz.com) is a world-renowned screenwriter for film and television, having received multiple awards. And he is, of course, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Alex Rider novels, which have become bestsellers the world over, spawned a major motion picture, and a line of graphic novels. A master of the spy thriller, Anthony is the only writer authorized by both the Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming Estates to write original Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels, respectively. Anthony lives with his wife in London, England; they are parents to two grown boys. Follow Anthony on Twitter @AnthonyHorowitz.

Read an Excerpt

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For Ages: 14+

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Editorial Reviews

Alex Rider, "the world's only teenaged secret agent," embarks on a third adventure in Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz. This time out, the British teen goes undercover as a ball boy at Wimbledon in the first stage of an assignment that leads to a showdown with a dastardly villain armed with nuclear weapons. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 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.

School Library Journal

14-year-old Alex Rider is an English spy who goes to work for the CIA. His assignment is to observe an exiled Communist general who is holed up in Cuba with a nuclear bomb. The gifted Simon Prebble keeps this potentially unbelievable story from straining credibility. Since characters span the globe, his diverse skills are constantly in demand. The evolving story and spiraling suspense are perfectly rendered. Best of all, Prebble is always young Alex when the role demands. The book jacket accurately proclaims, “Skeleton Key will keep even the most reluctant reader glued to the headphones.” S.G.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

DEC 03/JAN 04 - AudioFile