Snakehead (novel)

Snakehead

First edition cover
Author	Anthony Horowitz
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
ISBN	(first edition, hardback) and (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. 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.

The story picks up moments before Ark Angel ended. Alex Rider lands in the South Pacific after falling from outer space. He is picked up by the USS Kitty Hawk, a US Aircraft Carrier doubling as a "hospital at sea", where he recovers from his trip into space. He then goes to a military base and goes on a barbecue with a few of the guys and finds himself on a war field by accident. Meanwhile, the criminal organization SCORPIA is hired to assassinate eight celebrities who are hosting a "make poverty history"-type conference on Reef Island, an island off the north-west coast of Australia, using a bomb (which they do not yet have possession of), at the same time as the G8 summit. 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", a more powerful version of the daisy cutter.

Ethan Brooke, head of ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) coerces Alex into helping him about by pairing him with agent Ash, who was his godfather and once 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 taken to an illegal Muay Thai boxing arena by a member of the snakehead and put up against the snakehead's toughest fighter, Sunthorn. Alex wins by spitting water into Sunthorn's face. The unexpected victory incites a riot, but Alex manages to escape when someone (later revealed to be a MI6 agent) cuts the lights and attacks.