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Eagle Strike
Anthony Horowitz Philomel Books © 2004 |
Anthony Horowitz's Eagle Strike is an intriguing spy adventure that I enjoyed a lot. The story is about a fourteen-year-old boy named Alex, who becomes involved in an attempted murder mystery while he is vacationing with his girlfriend's family. His adventure quickly becomes exciting as it is learned that he has worked for an intelligence agency in England in the past and that the attempted murder on his girlfriend's family has ties with his past. So, he thinks the plan was to get him, but it wasn't. After Alex finds a piece of an article that Sabina's father, a journalist, was writing, he realized that a rock-star was involved in this attempted murder. Alex's quest to figure out what the relationship between the rock star and the recognized assassin, who also happened to be his uncle's murderer, led him to amazing predicaments. The problem was that nobody believed him because the rock star was also an internationally recognized philanthropist who was actively involved in many charitable and environmental projects.
The characters portrayed in Eagle Strike were very believable with the exception that it would be most unlikely that a fourteen-year-old would have the freedom to be on his own and get involved in the situations that Alex found himself. The events described are, at times, unbelievable; however, because terrorist activity is currently a reality, the events of this spy story could really happen. Many current events are mentioned in the story, along with familiar people, which makes this story one that kids can relate. My favorite part of the story is when Alex is forced to physically experience the sequences as found in a video game that the evil rock star has created. I imagined what it would be like to actually survive a video game and decided I am glad that it is not a reality.
The prologue made no sense to the story until the end was revealed. Throughout the book, I kept thinking about the prologue and didn't know why it was important. Anthony Horowitz tied everything together and set the stage for another adventure for Alex by the end of Eagle Strike.
I would recommend this book to anyone middle-school aged and up. I found it was easy to read and was filled with a lot of excitement. It was hard to guess what was going to happen next. I found myself racing to read the next chapter to find out what Eagle Strike meant. Once the main event was discovered, the story got even more intense and exciting. Read this story to find out for yourself.
~ Jarrett Scacchetti, grade 8, Canfield Village Middle School