Snakehead (novel)

Snakehead
First edition cover
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Alex Rider series
Genre	Adventure, Spy novel, thriller novel
Publisher	Walker Books
Publication date	Australia: 28 September 2007 UK: 31 October 2007 US: 13 November 2007
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	398
ISBN	978-1-4063-0935-5 (first edition, hardback) and ISBN 978-1-4063-0572-2 (paperback)
Preceded by	Ark Angel
Followed by	Crocodile Tears

Snakehead is the seventh novel in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz.^[1]^[2] The book was released in Australia on 28 September 2007, in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2007, and in the US on 13 November 2007. The title comes from the name given to Asian gangs involved in people smuggling illegal passports, visas, weapons, and more. Snakehead takes place directly after the events of Ark Angel, with Alex finding himself in Australian waters, where he landed at the end of that story.

Snakehead was shortlisted for the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize.

Plot

After destroying the Ark Angel space hotel at the end of Ark Angel, Alex Rider falls from space and lands in the South Pacific. He is picked up by the USS Kitty Hawk, an American aircraft carrier doubling as a "hospital at sea", where he recovers from his trip into space. He then travels to a military base owned by the Australian SAS and goes on a barbecue with a few of the soldiers, only to find himself on a war field by accident, which he manages to escape. He later learns that the war zone he stumbled onto was in fact a test of courage and stamina orchestrated by ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) director Ethan Brooke to prove to their agents that Alex is as tough as his reputation suggests.

Meanwhile, the criminal organisation Scorpia is hired to assassinate eight celebrities who are hosting a "Make Poverty History"-type conference, at the same time as the G8 summit, on an island off the north-west coast of Australia. Scorpia board member Major Winston Yu, the head of a powerful Asian snakehead gang, is charged with this mission. Two days later, Scorpia agents break into a Ministry of Defence weapons research centre and steal a prototype bomb codenamed "Royal Blue", a modified version of the "daisy cutter" bomb used in Vietnam to clear jungles but with an even more powerful shockwave.

Meanwhile, Ethan Brooke, head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), coerces Alex into helping him investigate Yu's illegal immigration operation by pairing him with agent Ash, who was Alex's godfather and one of his father's best friends. Alex travels to Bangkok where Ash explains their plan; he and Alex will take on the identities of Afghan refugees who have paid the snakehead to smuggle them into Australia, in order to identify important members of the snakehead and find out how they smuggle the refugees. They are given disguises and sent to an area in Chinatown to await contact from the snakehead.

As part of the deal to ensure their passage, Alex is taken to an illegal Muay Thai boxing arena by a member of the snakehead and pitted against the snakehead's toughest fighter, Sunthorn. Alex wins by spitting water on Sunthorn. The unexpected victory incites a riot, but Alex manages to escape when someone cuts the lights and attacks. Later on, Alex meets the attacker, who is revealed to be Fox, now working for MI6. He and Mrs Jones convince Alex to look for Royal Blue while investigating the snakehead.

The snakehead is still willing to take Ash and Alex to Australia, and they go on to Jakarta, Indonesia, the next step of their journey. Despite a brush with Kopassus, the Indonesian special forces, Alex and Ash make it to a port, and discover a container ship, the Liberian Star. The two of them are separated and put into separate containers, which are loaded onto the ship. While the boat is at sea, Alex escapes by using one of his exploding coins (given to him by MI6), and explores the ship. He eventually finds Royal Blue, and sees Yu scanning his fingerprints into a machine that will give him sole control over the bomb. Once Yu is gone, Alex scans his own fingerprints into Royal Blue then escapes the ship using another coin. Ash is caught and held hostage, forcing Alex to surrender.

Alex is invited to tea with Yu, who reveals his plan. He will lower Royal Blue into a crevice between two of the Earth's crust plates and detonate it; the shockwave will create an artificial tsunami that will kill the eight celebrities, before hitting the coast of Australia, with the resultant destruction overshadowing the deaths of Scorpia's targets. Yu has Alex sent to a hospital in the Australian outback where he is to be used as a donor for illegal organ transplants. Alex escapes using his final exploding coin to improvise a kayak from a seaplane pontoon, and later manages to contact MI6 and ASIS. Alex is sent as part of an SAS team to the oil rig where Royal Blue will be detonated.

On the oil rig, Alex and Ben confront Yu and his assistant. Ben shoots the assistant, who is revealed to be Ash; he had become a double agent for Scorpia following a botched mission to kill a drug dealer which had left Ash with severe internal injuries. Ash also reveals, before dying of his injuries, that he put the bomb on the plane that Alex's parents were on. Yu escapes and triggers the sinking of Royal Blue, but Alex detonates it prematurely, stopping it from killing Scorpia's targets. The resulting shockwave smashes Yu apart (his skeleton having been weakened by brittle bone disease), killing him.

At the end of the novel, Jack Starbright, Alex's housekeeper, calls a mysterious person over for dinner. Alex is surprised to see the guest is Sabina Pleasure, his old friend who moved to San Francisco after the events of Eagle Strike.

References

↑ Unicorns, Purple (22 March 2012). "Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz – review". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 26 March 2013.
↑ "Snakehead, Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider Series". Retrieved 26 March 2013.

External links

Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz

Novels	Stormbreaker film video game Point Blanc Skeleton Key Eagle Strike Scorpia Ark Angel Snakehead Crocodile Tears Scorpia Rising Russian Roulette

Characters	Alex Rider

Anthony Horowitz

Alex Rider	Stormbreaker (2000) Point Blanc (2001) Skeleton Key (2002) Eagle Strike (2003) Scorpia (2004) Ark Angel (2005) Snakehead (2007) Crocodile Tears (2009) Scorpia Rising (2011) Russian Roulette (2013)

The Diamond Brothers	The Falcon's Malteser (1986) Public Enemy Number Two (1987) South By South East (1991) Three of Diamonds (2004) The Greek Who Stole Christmas (2007)

The Power of Five	Raven's Gate (2005) Evil Star (2006) Nightrise (2007) Necropolis (2008) Oblivion (2012)

Sherlock Holmes	The House of Silk (2011) Moriarty (2014)

Other novels	Groosham Grange (1988) The Devil and His Boy (1998) Mindgame (2001) The Killing Joke (2004) Trigger Mortis (2015)

Short story collections	Horowitz Horror (1999)

Films written	Just Ask for Diamond (1988) The Gathering (2003) Stormbreaker (2006)

Television series created	Crime Traveller (1997) Murder in Mind (2001–2003) Foyle's War (2002–15) Collision (2009) Injustice (2011)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.