Book Review: Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz

Title: Crocodile Tears
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Published: 2009
Rating: 3/10
This is the eighth novel to be published in the Alex Rider series. Alex Rider is a young British schoolboy that is a spy for MI6!
A summary of the plot:
The story begins with Alex Rider spending the New Year with Sabina Pleasure and her family in Scotland. The car they were in was shot by a sniper, sending them to their doom as they crash into the icy cold waters of a loch. Alex manages to save Sabrina’s father from drowning. They are later rescued as Sabina leaves for America when the holidays end.
A few months later, Alex is asked to steal information from Greenfield,a bio-engineering company which is suspected to dabble in illegal activities.. During a school trip, Alex infiltrates the facility, steals the info and leaves. At the same time he discovers that Leonard Straik, the director of Greenfields, is working for Desmond McCain.
Soon, Alex is kidnapped and smuggled to Kenya by Desmond McCain. He is then placed under the guard of African tribesmen employed to McCain. Desmond McCain reveals that he created a charity, First Aid, to steal money from the public, donating to disasters that he engineers himself. Thus, First Aid will arrive on the scene first and gain a large sums of money. In addition, McCain exposes his master plan; Greenfields have created a poison for crops that will kill half the population of Africa.
McCain informs Alex that the poison cannot be stopped and he will make hundreds of millions of pounds in the first few months of the plague despite the fact that thousands will die.
McCain leaves Alex to die but is saved by an Indian Secret Service agent.
Alex forms a plan to the blow up the dam near the infected crop field, killing all the infected wheat in the process.
With stolen explosives from Indian agent Alex reaches the dam plants the explosives, and destroys the dam, flooding the fields of infected crops. Alex is again rescued by the Indian agent, but is shot by McCain as he lands the get away plane. Alex hides behind a set of oil barrels in the hangar, and tries to blow the barrels up. As McCain is about to kill Alex, he himself is killed by exploding oil barrels. Alex is knocked out cold, and is sent to the hospital to recuperate. His caretaker reminds him that he's birthday is coming, and Alex is glad to be just a school boy again.
This book, I felt, was a disgrace to the entire series of Alex Rider books. This book just lacked the excitement and mystery of the other books. I saw the plot twist from a mile away. The other books were non-stop page turners. You just had to read on to find out what sort of devilish plan was being concocted and how Alex was going to save the world. Another thing that I have to complain about is the gadgets. In the previous books, Alex was given many interesting gadgets that he used when you least expected it. Now, all he has is some very generic gadgets that aren’t even worth a mention. The characters are also very bland and un-original. The main villain seemed to be very fake and unbelievable, and his plan , to me, seemed to be not very well thought out by Anthony ( the author).
I really suggest you read the other books in this series because this book , “ Crocodile Tears” was not at all witty, funny and mixed with a right blend of excitement, non-stop edge of your seat action and fever. Well, unlike the other books in the series.
I know this book review seems very biased, but believe me, if you have read what Alex was capable of, you would feel that this book was just a huge understatement of his abilities.