Snakehead (novel)

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Snakehead

Author	Anthony Horowitz
Cover artist	Michael Eaton
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 pp (400 with acknowledgments)
ISBN	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. The deaths must look accidental. Scorpia board member 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".

Ethan Brooke coerces Alex into helping him about by pairing him with agent Ash, who was Alex's godfather and one of his father's best friends, to investigate the snakehead ring.

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 this way they can 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. Alex is given exploding coins by Smithers, which he hides from Ash.

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.

The snakehead is still willing to take Ash and Alex to Australia. They go on to Jakarta, Indonesia, the next step of their journey. Despite a brush with Kopassus, the Indonesian special forces, in a toy factory owned by the snakehead, 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 coins, 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. After this Ash is caught and held hostage, forcing Alex to surrender.

Alex is then knocked unconscious and is captured by Yu. When Alex wakes he is invited to tea with Yu before being 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. After kayaking down the river and being shot at Alex attempts to contact MI6. Alex discovers that there is no battery in his watch, and shorts a circuit from a battery in his trainers and is rescued by MI6. Along with Ben Daniels (who reveals that he cut the lights at the boxing arena), 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 that he put the bomb on the plane on which Alex's parents were on. Ash tries to convince Alex otherwise but dies before he can explain. Yu escapes and triggers the sinking of Royal Blue. Alex detonates it early and it harmlessly goes off. Yu is killed when the resulting shock wave shatters his skeleton, weakened by osteoporosis.^[3]

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

References

↑ "Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz – review, The Guardian". Retrieved 26 March 2013.
↑ "Snakehead, Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider Series". Retrieved 26 March 2013.
↑ http://www.nof.org/learn/basics

Paperback version

It also features an advertisement for Necropolis, fourth in the Power of Five series (The Gatekeepers in USA), displaying one of the first shots of the cover since it was finished.

External links

v t e 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 Others

v t e 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)

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

Other novels	Groosham Grange (1988) The Devil and His Boy (1998) Mindgame (2001) The Killing Joke (2004) The House of Silk (2011)

Short story collections	Horowitz Horror (1999)

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

TV series created	Crime Traveller (1997) Murder in Mind (2001–2003) Foyle's War (2002–2013) Collision (2009) Injustice (2011)

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