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Overview

Skeleton Key is the third book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2002, and in the United States on April 28, 2003.

Summary

The book opens with three men meeting with General Alexei Sarov on the fictional island of Skeleton Key, Cuba and attempt to blackmail him into giving them $1 million more or they will go to the American authorities, following a deal to supply General Sarov with uranium. Taking this as a threat, General Sarov kills them by tricking the plane, causing it to fall into a crocodile-infested body of water.

Meanwhile, after the events of Point Blanc, Alex Rider is visited by John Crawley at school, who offers him tickets to Wimbledon where he goes undercover as a ball boyto investigate a break-in. Alex manages to foil the Chinese Triad gang Big Circle's attempt for match fixing, but is targeted by the triad gang, as another, higher-ranking member makes a second attempt on his life while surfing on vacation with Sabina, whom he befriended at Wimbledon. Sabina manages to rescue him. For his sake, both MI6 and the CIA arrange to send him with CIA agents Tom Turner (renamed "Glen Carver" in the US version of Skeleton Key) and Belinda Troy to Skeleton Key to investigate General Sarov, who will pass off as his parents. The CIA is concerned about the actions of Sarov since he intends to meet the Russian president, Boris Kiriyenko.

En route to Skeleton Key, the 'family' of Alex, Turner and Troy stop in Miami. The two CIA agents are openly unhappy about bringing Alex and they attempt to keep as much information from Alex as possible, clearly discrediting him, much to Alex's frustration. Turner meets a criminal known as 'the Salesman' on a boat 'Mayfair Lady', suspecting that the Salesman was involved in a deal with Sarov. The Salesman, however, is aware of Turner's true identity and plans to kill him and dumped in the sea. Alex sneaks aboard the boat and sets fire to it, causing a distraction. A firefight ensues while Alex escapes with Turner. However, when the captain attempts to run them over, the boat suddenly explodes, killing everyone on board. Although he was saved, Turner blames Alex for causing the explosion, who insist he wasn't responsible.

Arriving in Skeleton Key, Alex notices a Geiger counter in a Game Boy Advanceconsole he was given by the 'parents' that is designed to pick up nuclear radiation, deducing that Turner and Troy were, in fact, sent to the island to search for a nuclear bomb. The two CIA agents then reluctantly revealed that they suspect Sarov of constructing a nuclear bomb using the uranium bought from the Salesman, and tell their plan to infiltrate the residence of Sarov - the Casa de Oro, by scuba diving into a cave underneath the house. Alex goes with them but stays on the boat while Turner and Troy go underwater. When they do not return after a while, Alex dives in and, after a close encounter with a shark, discovers a mechanical spear trap that impaled Turner and Troy, which kills the shark as well. When he resurfaces, Garcia, the boat driver, has been killed and Alex is captured by Conrad, who drugs him unconscious. Alex finds himself in a sugar factory lying down on the conveyor belt where Conrad interrogates him. Although Alex unwillingly telling the truth, Conrad decides to kill him anyway, but General Sarov stops him at the last second. Alex, overwhelmed that he was inches near death, passes out.

Alex wakes up in the Casa de Oro and meets with Sarov, who says he had known all about the cave, and he promises to tell Alex what he plans to do with him. He also revealed that Conrad planted an explosive on the Salesman's boat, worried that he will carry out his threat after not receiving any further payment and the death of the three couriers. The next day, Sarov tells Alex about his son Vladamir who was killed in the war in Afghanistan by an enemy sniper. The General tells Alex how he wishes to adopt him as he shares many traits with Vladamir, due to their similar physical appearance and common traits, such as patriotism. He then has Alex moved to the slave house when President Kiriyenko arrives. Alex attempts to escape the mansion by hiding in the trunk of a limousine following a lunch meeting between Sarov and Kiriyenko but was caught by Sarov due to a heartbeat detector. The general spares Alex's life yet again but punishes him through psychological torture. At dinner later that evening, Sarov drugs Kiriyenko and his guests, making them all lose consciousness, and they are then moved to the slave house. WIth the finished nuclear bomb loaded onto Kiriyenko's private Presidential jet, whose pilots serve Sarov, Sarov, Alex, Conrad and a small security team takes off from the island, heading to Murmansk which Sarov says contains a shipyard of nuclear submarines.

During the flight, Sarov revealed that he plans to detonate the bomb there which will cause a massive explosion and a nuclear fallout. Russia will be blamed and they will turn to their President. Sarov will then release edited footage from an interview which will disgrace him, ousting him from power while reverting Russia back to communismunder Sarov, while others in northern Europe dies from the nuclear fallout. Sarov will then instigate wars all over the planet until the entire world is united under a Communist government, and also plans for Alex to take over Sarov in the future. When the plane makes a fuel stop in Edinburgh, Alex uses a disguised stun grenadeto escape from the plane, incapacitating Sarov and Conrad temporarily. Alex then attempts to call the police but is stopped by a security guard John Prescott. Despite Alex's efforts to convince Prescott of the situation, Sarov recaptures Alex and Prescott is killed by Conrad. They continue their flight to Murmansk.

At Murmansk, Conrad plants the bomb on a submarine, while one of Sarov's men restraints Alex, with handcuffs, to a handrail close to the submarines, Sarov approaches him and felt apologetic for wanting to kill him, before leaving for Moscowby himself. Alex sets himself free and fights with Conrad, while the Russian army and navy arrive and initiate a firefight against Sarov's men. Conrad outmatches Alex and comes dangerously close to killing him. However, Conrad (who has numerous pieces of metal inside his body following an incident) is caught by the crane's electromagnetpassing overhead, lifting him into the air. Alex takes control of the crane, dropping Conrad's body into the sea and removing the nuclear bomb from the submarine. He then removes the detonation card, only to be told to put it back by a reappearing, injured Sarov; Alex instead throws the card into the ocean, when Alex rejects becoming Sarov's son. Sarov commits suicide in front of him.

In the final chapter of the novel, it is revealed that when Alex explained his predicament to Prescott, his office heard their conversation through Prescott's radio, which was still turned on. When they discovered Prescott's death, they immediately notified MI6, who in turn warned the Russians. Alex is depressed after everything he has been through, but Sabina approaches him and invites him on holiday with her family in France for a couple of weeks, which cheers Alex up.

Autho

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 guignolhorror 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.

So how did an unhappy boy, from a privileged background, metamorphose into the creator of Alex Rider, fourteen-year-old spy for Britain's MI6? Although his childhood permanently damaged him, it also gave him a gift — it provided him with rich source material for his writing career. He found solace in boyhood in the escapism of the James Bond films, he says. He claims that his two sons now watch the James Bond films with the same tremendous enjoyment he did at their age. Bond's glamour translates perfectly to the 14-year-old psyche, the author says. "Bond had his cocktails, the car and the clothes. Kids are just as picky. It's got to be the right Nike trainers (sneakers), the right skateboard. And I genuinely think that 14-year-olds are the coolest people on the planet. It's this wonderful, golden age, just on the cusp of manhood when everything seems possible."

Alex Rider is unwillingly recruited at the age of fourteen to spy for the British secret service, MI6. Forced into situations that most average adults would find terrifying and probably fatal, young Alex rarely loses his cool although at times he doubts his own courage. Using his intelligence and creativity, and aided by non-lethal gadgets dreamed up by MI6's delightfully eccentric, overweight and disheveled Smithers, Alex is able to extricate himself from situations when all seems completely lost. What is perhaps more terrifying than the deeply dangerous missions he finds himself engaged in, is the attitude of his handlers at MI6, who view the boy as nothing more than an expendable asset.

The highly successful Alex Rider novels include Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key, and the recent Eagle Strike.

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 Gatheringhas just finished production. And…oh yes…there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothersseries.

Graphic novel

In 2009 a graphic novel adaptation of Skeleton Key was released through Walker Books. This version altered some elements from the original novel, such as eliminating the attack on Alex while he was surfing in Cornwall, as well as having Sabina, already friends with Alex, attending Wimbledon as a spectator.

Reception

Critical reception for both versions of Skeleton Key was mostly positive, with Booklistgiving the novel version a positive review. The print version of Skeleton Key was named as one of ALA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers for 2004.[3] The School Library Journal has given praise for both editions of the story, calling the print version "rip-roaring" while recommending the graphic novel as a pick for "reluctant readers".

媒体推荐

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

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.