Recently, I shared my review of Stormbreaker, the first book in the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. Continuing the series I am back with a review of the second book, Point Blank. Much like the first book, it opens with Alex getting into trouble. This time he has utilized his skills to help with the drug problem at his school. The tricky part is that he ends up dropping the drug dealer’s boat into a building instead of the police parking lot. Unfortunately for Alex, this was all that was needed for MI6 to recruit him for another mission. Much like the previous one it is also an infiltration with just as little background information available. Mr. Blunt, the head of MI6, has recently become aware of two potentially related deaths, both of which could have been assassinations instead of accidental deaths. One Russian general and one American businessman with little in common, except their mutual digging into Point Blank, the somewhat mysterious and prestigious school for troubled boys that their teenage sons have just returned from. Curious about the school and its potential relation to the two deaths, Blunt decides to investigate and recruits Alex to go undercover as a student. Posing as Alex Friend, he travels to the school’s remote campus on Mont Blanc, in the Swiss Alps, where he quickly discovers that nothing is what it seems, including the other students. Upon finding the truth he ends up in a mad dash for his life, and to call backup.
As you’ve probably gathered, this book is an intense in terms of action and drama as the previous book. Alex is once again placed in a situation where he has no immediate backup and few options for calling backup. Despite that he once again rises to the occasion and successfully figures out what is actually going on, all while foiling the bad guy’s plan. As the book covers state, Alex is slowly “saving the world – one mission at a time”. Something that I really like about this series is the intricacy of the plots, which is something that is really necessary for this kind of story. I say that because the story would not be nearly as good if Alex figured out the truth right away. It really needs a bit of buildup. In this case the reveal is probably a little over halfway through and the rest of the story is leading up to the final takedown and resolution. Even after the reveal there are a lot of time plot points that have to be resolved before the overall plotline can be resolved with the final takedown of Dr. Grief, this book’s main villain. One of those plot points, and in my opinion a rather intriguing one, is the gadgets. Much like the previous book, Alex is provided an array of gadgets by Mr. Smithers, a tech guy working for MI6. Each gadget is used at a different point in the story to help facilitate Alex’s mission. The story’s not over until all of the gadgets have been used. One good thing about this book is we get to see a little more depth to characters besides Alex. Mr. Blunt is revealed as a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to finish the mission and resolve the potential threat, even recruiting a kid, and having few, if any, doubts on his conscience about doing so. Ms. Jones, the deputy head of MI6, has those doubts about recruiting a kid and even airs them to Blunt at times but she is ultimately willing to ignore them in order to do her job, even if that means living with a guilty conscience afterwards. Not only do these details help flesh out the characters, they help to flesh out the world of espionage and spycraft where things don’t come in black and white but shades of gray. I give this book a full five stars.
This was overall a great book and one that I am sure I will reread again in the future. If you happen to be a fan of mysteries or thrillers, especially if they deal with espionage or spies, than I recommend you try it. While you probably should read the first book to better understand why Alex is working for MI6, you could probably read this book without doing so as it is mostly a standalone. I know this book is marketed as teen or young adult but I genuinely think it could also hold a lot appeal to older readers as well. As always, let me know if you decide to try it. I’m curious what you thought of the book.