Jimmy Coates: Killer
| Author | Joe Craig |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jimmy Coates |
| Genre | Thriller, Young adult |
| Published | March 2005 (HarperCollins) |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 299 pages (21 chapters) |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Jimmy Coates: Target |
Jimmy Coates: Killer, released as Jimmy Coates: Assassin in the United States, is a 2005 novel written by Joe Craig. The story revolves around 11-year-old Jimmy Coates and is mostly set in the fictional dictatorship of the "Neo-Democratic State of Great Britain". It is the first novel in the Jimmy Coates series.
Shortly after the UK publication, it was released in the United States under the title Jimmy Coates: Assassin. It was a finalist for the 2006 Manchester Book Award, and won the Bolton Children's Book Award 2006.
Craig became a songwriter after graduating from Cambridge University but preferred telling stories. He worked on the novel for a year and completed it in 2004. The novel was published in April 2005 by HarperCollins.
Jimmy Coates lives like any other boy in the "Neo-Democratic State of Great Britain". One day while fighting with his elder sister, Georgie, he feels a strange sensation within himself and suddenly, using a fighting technique he had never known before, pins her down. Some men come to their house and talk to his parents, Ian and Helen Coates. They try to take Jimmy with them but he fights them off with surprising strength. These people use a symbol: A green vertical stripe against a black background. They take Jimmy's parents but his sister walks off.
Jimmy escapes from them but is followed by Mitchel, a 13-year-old thief and snatcher who tries to rob him. Jimmy easily defeats him and persuades him to take him to the police station. At the police station the police too try to capture Jimmy but he escapes and takes refuge in his friend Felix's house. He contacts his school teacher, Miss Bennett, who doesn't believe him. He is discovered but escapes via helicopter. He throws the pilot off the helicopter and amazingly he is able to pilot the craft. He is followed but escapes by jumping into the Thames River, discovering he can breathe under water. Next morning, he is found by his sister and her friend Eva's family but Eva's parents betray Jimmy and drug him. When he wakes up he finds that he is a genetically engineered assassin and is only 38% human. His neighbor, Dr. Higgins, was on the team who developed him. The Green Stripe is an organization working for the government also called NJ7. He also finds out that Mrs Bennett is an NJ7 agent and his own parents are former agents.
He meets the Prime Minister Ares Hollingdale and is ordered to murder Christopher Viggo a person who supports bringing back democracy. He attempts to kill Viggo but instead joins Viggo, who plans to bring down the present government and bring back democracy. Viggo is a former NJ7 agent. Together they rescue Felix and Georgie.
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