Product Description

Splashing down off the coast of Australia, Alex is soon working undercover – this time for ASIS, the Australian Secret Service – on a mission to infiltrate the criminal underworld of South-East Asia: the ruthless world of the Snakehead. Faced with an old enemy and troubled by his own past, Alex is caught between two secret services, with no one to trust – and this time he needs all his wits to survive...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #938 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Released on: 2008-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Anthony Horowitz is the creator of the phenomenal Alex Rider books and the bestselling Power of Five series and was recently voted the 2007 BA/Nielsen Author of the Year. He won the 2006 British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for Ark Angel and the 2003 Red House Children's Book of the Year Award for Skeleton Key. Anthony, who wrote the script for the Alex Rider movie Stormbreaker, also writes extensively for TV, with credits including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War. He lives in Clerkenwell, London.

Customer Reviews

Not something I'd normally be into
I usually read books a little on the lighter side. Books like ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by Sedaris, INVISIBLE MONSTERS by Palahniuk, or the book DO ANTS HAVE ARSEHOLES. So coming to buy this book took me by surprise.

Why did I buy it? Well, the great reviews and the fact that three separate friends recommended it to me with the caveat that "You're not going to like it." That was a red flag for me, and a challenge. So I read, not expecting to like it. And here's the big surprise-----I did! I loved it. The pacing, the characters, everything.

It deals with gangs and South East Asia, so if you think you're not going to be able to get into it, don't---you will love it as the author does wonderful things with the material he chooses. Dark? Yes. Dangerous? Yes. Fun? Yes. All of these things. I can't recommend SNAKEHEAD enough, along with the bestseller DON'T STOP ME NOW.

How to get a boy to read
My 10 year old is a reluctant reader, on the whole. Most of the books that captured my attention when I was growing up (Narnia, Swallows and Amazons, The Hobbit) he struggles with. Even Harry Potter, who he loves, he gets bogged down in, and would rather I read to him.

Alex Rider is the exception. We went through all of the first six books in just over a school term. And when this one turned up, he read 50 pages in the first evening he got it.

I like the books as well, and managed to start this one before my son got his hands on it! Alex is a reluctant secret agent, and the scars and pain from earlier adventures stay with him. The issues that he faces - people trafficking in this book - are issues that children will hear about in the media, and the stories present them in such a way that they can see the human dimension. If anything, this book is a little less preposterous than some of the others (he isn't sent into space again ...!), but just as compulsive, and just as well geared into boys' minds.

The best yet..
My family and I have been reading the Alex Rider novels since they first started coming out, and my youngest son has grown up with them. We found the latest to be the best yet--clever, classy, intrigue- and action-packed, with some great twists and turns. We also loved the fact it was set in our part of the world, in Australia and South-East Asia. A fantastic read, with some truly evil villains(including some horrible Dr Strangelove/Boys from Brazil medical types) and some great set-pieces, including a punishing bout for Alex of Muay Thai, the bloody Thai martial art with no holds barred at all!