Although I do read YA books, this is not my usual fare. When purchasing another hardback in a charity shop I was encouraged to take advantage of their two-for-one deal, and this book was the least worst of all those in offer. I know of Horowitz as a TV writer of renown, so thought it should at least be well-written.

I found that this was number 8 in a series about a young boy, Alex Rider, fourteen years old, who has been recruited by MI6, part of British intelligence. It comes across as quite a cliched James Bond scenario, down to its own version of Q who comes up with the gadgets though the one in this is called Smithers instead. I suspended my disbelief about this unlikely premise, and enjoyed the action sequences and general mayhem.

The story starts when the protagonist, Alex, attends a New Year party in Scotland with a friend of his and her father, a journalist. He meets the owner of the remote castle where it is held, a seemingly reformed businessman who was sent to jail for fraud (arson). The man now runs a charity called First Aid, which tries to be first on the scene to any disaster, and has recently assisted in India where a nuclear power station had a leak (which the prologue has shown was actually sabotage). The man seems startled when he later comes upon Alex and his friend's father discussing his homework about GM crops. When Alex leaves shortly afterwards in the company of his friend and her father, their car suffers an 'accident' which is nearly fatal.

Alex doesn't want to carry out any more missions for MI6, but is forced to when a rogue journalist comes after him threatening to expose Alex and ruin any chance he has of a normal life. In return, he has to do "one last job" for MI6 which involves getting into the office of the director of a GM firm and downloading the data from his computer. The job is meant to be free of major risks, but this proves far from the truth when Alex discovers that the manager of the charity is also there, and seemingly involved in a conspiracy.

I'm sure this goes down very well with the age group for which it is intended as it is basically a wish fulfilment fantasy. It is a page turning read with a lot of excitement, but for an older reader such as myself a lot of implausibility - would a villain really confess all his plans to a prisoner and then stroll away not even bothering to make sure he is killed as ordered? I recall such scenes from old Bond films, and it is a bit of a cliche of the genre, but there is a reliance on such things and also on very good luck and the very convenient help of another individual at various key moments which do rather stretch the suspension of disbelief, especially as some of the things Alex has to do in this story would push the stamina and capibility of a highly trained and fit stunt person or commando.

If it was written for older readers it would also have to deal with the effect on a fourteen year old boy of the traumatic events to which he is subjected. I gathered that he had been shot in the past, at Liverpool Street station, and although there is a token effort at showing he still has some reaction when he has to go there again, he doesn't appear to suffer any qualms from killing a number of men in this book, even though it is in self defence.

Overall, a good light read, but not memorable and requiring a lot of suspension of disbelief on the part of an adult reader so personally I can only rate it as a 3 star read. ( )

On a trip to Scotland to celebrate New Year's Eve with Sabina Pleasure and her parents, she and Alex are almost killed in a car accident. When Alex gets home and back to school, MI6 asks him to infiltrate the office of Leonard Straik while on a science field trip to a genetic research facility called Greenfields. While there, Alex stumbles on a plot involving Straik and Desmond McCain, who he met in Scotland. Alex barely escapes Greenfields to get the information he gathered to MI6, but his connection to them leaves him vulnerable to the very people that he was trying to expose.

Crocodile Tears is another action packed adventure featuring Alex and his amazing skills as a 14 year old spy. In this installment, we do see that Alex does have friends, and he is trying to have a normal life, but even if he doesn't seek out trouble, it seems to find him. We continue to hear about the psychological toll that these missions are having on him, but most of the damage seems to be physical. The bad guy in this story has his eye on money and power as with many of the villains in these stories. Overall, Crocodile Tears tells a plausible story with a satisfying conclusion. 3 1/2 stars ( )

The Alex Rider series has become too formulaic. In Book #8, a reformed criminal (former MoP) has found religion and started a charity for disaster relief. Only he has also started to create the disasters to faciltate fundraising: first, a nuclear accident in India and then genetically improved wheat, which will release a deadly virus in Africa after a biological catalyst is introduced. Meanwhile a journalist threatens to "out" Alex and so Alex agrees to help MI6 one last time, getting deeply involved in the case to save millions of lives. Twice, when Alex's death is imminent, a stranger saves him, who himself is a foreign secret agent, seeking retribution for the sociopath's atrocities. ( )

00012966

Suspense and action all the way to the very end! It’s 385 pages but it’s a fast read with lots of unexpected twists of events. ( )