Necropolis (2008 novel)

Necropolis

Author	Anthony Horowitz
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Power of Five
Genre	Fantasy novel, thriller novel
Publisher	Walker Books
Publication date	30 October 2008 (UK) 15 April 2009 (USA)
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	388 pp
Preceded by	Nightrise
Followed by	Oblivion

Necropolis is a fantasy novel by British writer Anthony Horowitz. It is the fourth novel in his The Power of Five series. The book is set in London, Peru, Miami, Ukraine, Macau and Hong Kong. The book was released in the United Kingdom and Australia on 30 October 2008. It is a rewrite of the corresponding Day of the Dragon, released 1989 in Horowitz's Pentagram series. A marked difference between original is evidenced by a lead character, Will, being replaced with a female counterpart, Scarlett. According to Horowitz, this change resulted a complete rewrite of the original. Before Christmas 2008, the book had sold 190,000 copies worldwide.

Scarlett Adams' school tutor group is taken on a trip to St Meredith's Church where she sees a vision of Matthew Freeman, who leads her to the door with the pentagram etched into it. There, she is transported to Ukraine, inside a monastery where she is captured by monks who worship the Old Ones. She is taken to the leader of the monastery, Father Gregory, who tells Scarlett of the Gatekeepers and the Old Ones. He and his followers built the monastery around the door in order to catch any of the Five for the Old Ones should they come through. Scarlett is taken to a cell, and that night she has a dream about a dragon and a strange neon sign that says "SIGNAL ONE". Later, she escapes by attacking the monks and returning through the door. She returns to St Meredith's, but her eighteen-hour-long disappearance has sparked a media storm.

In Peru, at Professor Chambers' hacienda, Matt finds out who Scarlett is through the media storm and decides that he should go back to London with the rest of the Five and his friend Richard Cole. However, later that night, a man named Ramon brings the diary belonging to St Joseph of Cordoba, claiming that he feels remorse for helping Diego Salamanda decode the diary. The diary contains the locations of twenty-five doors around the world that serve as portals to other doors. After studying the diary using his skills of reading old maps he learnt at university, Richard says that there are doors in Tuscany, Lake Tahoe, Cuzco, London, Ukraine, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, Mecca, Buenos Aires, the Australian outback, Antarctica and Hong Kong. Scott Tyler confirms Ramon's truthfulness by reading his mind, but the hacienda is then attacked and set on fire by strange zombies who kill Ramon with a fence post. Although their Inca allies arrive and finish off the zombies, Professor Chambers is mortally wounded and dies. Matt decides that the Five should split up so that the Old Ones cannot capture them all in one shot, and he, Jamie and Richard go to find Scarlett while Pedro and Scott go to the hidden Inca city of Vilcabamba to stay.