Fun! With no shilly-shallying. Anthony Horowitz's first Alex Rider action/adventure story moves right along. With some a cast of characters! There's Alex, our 14yo hero who, often despite himself, disentangles himself from some pretty awful situations. And then there are the bad guys, "Herod Smell" and the ever-endearing Mr. Grin. Not a lot of UK vocabulary, either, so easy reading for all American tweens and teens. (The book does include some interesting descriptions of UK geography and London landmarks.)