Alex Rider returns for his eighth adventure in Crocodile Tears, and I had a blast with it. This book, more than any of the others, really takes a spin off the James Bond 007 franchise when it opens up on Alex playing Texas Hold ‘em with the big baddie of the book. I had to force my willing suspension of disbelief for this sequence, but Horowitz is one of those storytellers that I’m happy to do that for.
After all, Alex is my favorite teen spy, and the one that truly kicked off a lot of the action-packed series that have since jumped on board. For the uninitiated, and with the books selling in the millions of copies so I can’t believe there can be many of those left, Alex is a 14-year old boy who lives in London and sometimes works with MI-6, Great Britain’s version of the CIA. They love using him because he’s young and generally slides beneath the radar of the bad guys. But Alex is a totally hardcore when it comes to martial arts and feats of derring-do.
Usually Alex gets recruited into a mission for MI-6 through some bit of backhanded blackmail, but in this one he inadvertently steps afoul of Desmond McCain (our villain) and ends up first in the sights of a sharpshooter, then at the eye of the storm McCain unleashes on him. The fact that Alex involved himself in so much of the bad guy’s overall plot was different, and it makes sense given that Alex is the kind of kid that he is. Most boys his age wouldn’t walk away from a mystery or a grievance either, and would look for ways to strike back.
The action in this one is over-the-top stuff that would make great cinematography. Hopefully someone will again pick up the Alex Rider film franchise and give it another go. The series really deserves that, and this would be an excellent story to film from.
Article comments
1 - lloyd harley
i really do like this book it is thrilling and keeps the suspense from the series