Books for April

Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz

Review

When the house of a friend's father is bombed, Alex Rider is sure he knows who did it. He saw just that day, on the pier, a man who he knows to be a hired killer, but decided that it had nothing to do with him. Feeling horrible, and knowing that the police won't believe him, he decides to follow Yassen Gregorovitch onto his private yatch and is launched headfirst into a deadly bullfight that might silence him forever. Escaping, he finds that Gregorovitch may be in the pay of a famous musician, now a lord and a millionaire, and that his friend's father might have upset him somehow. He is aghast at the fact that the Secret Services might not even back him up on this one, but goes ahead with his investigation anyway. What he finds is more disturbing than if Cray had just been a criminal motivated by greed. He finds that in all the murders Cray has ordered, all the lives he has ruined, and even in his new plan that could kill thousands of people, he actually believes that what he is doing is the right thing.

The Dragon's Lair by Elizabeth Haydon

Review

When Ven Polypheme is asked, by the king, to explore the lands of the Nain (his people) and other mysterious races, he jumps at the task. But there are a few complicating factors. For one, he is being followed by agents of the Thief Queen, who he crossed in his last adventure, and most recently, crows. Also, the lands are being ravaged by a horrible monster, an enormous dragon named Scarnag. Nevertheless, he sets out on the journey with his friends, hidden from the prying eyes of the angry Thief Queen, and encounters a River King with a magic telescope, a land of identical cows, and rights an ancient wrong involving a dragon whose trust was betrayed. Also, he is left with a nagging doubt that a fortune teller instilled in him: she told him that she sees he footprints going on and then abruptly stopping. Is this to be his last adventure?

-- JackW - 15 Apr 2009