The eleventh Alex Rider novel, published in 2017.
Tropes:
- Happy Ending Override: Scorpia Rising, which was intended to be the final book in the series at the time it was written, ends with Alex finally escaping MI6 and starting a new life in America with the Pleasure family. A few years down the line, however, Anthony Horowitz decided to revive the series, and this novel opens with Alex miserable and unable to accustomise to his new life, still traumatised by the events of the previous book.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: A stolen helicopter is disguised - by tilting it vertically and covering the fuselage with plywood - as a windmill.
- Pocket Protector: Alex is saved from a poisoned needle fired by Dragana Novak when the dart hits the passport and wallet in his pocket — where Alex had manipulated her into aiming.
- Put on a Bus: During Alex's talk with Mrs Jones, she mentions that both Alan Blunt and Smithers have left MI6 since Alex had last worked for them. Alan Blunt has resigned, while Smithers simply left. This also means that, for once, Alex's 'gadget' (his modified laptop) is instead provided by Shadia of the Egyptian State Security Service.
- Reset Button: The novel goes to great pains to undo every development made by "Scorpia Rising", which had previously stood as the series' Grand Finale for six years until Horowitz decided to revive it. By the end the status quo is exactly as it was before that book.
- Red Herring: When Alex first touches down in Cairo, the reader is treated to a scene where a man is informed that Alex has arrived, and angrily tells his agent to bring Alex to him, setting him up to be a major antagonistic force. He turns out to be Colonel Manzour, whose tracking of Alex manages to save him from a group of Razim's old goons, and provides Alex with valuable help in tracking down Jack
- Sky Heist: The villains mount a kidnap plot in this way by snatching a school bus of children from an exclusive private school whilst it's on a motorway, using a helicopter with a magnetic hoist.
- Status Quo Is God: The book itself is an heavily exaggerated example, undoing nearly everything that had changed at the end of Scorpia Rising, including a major character's death, the collapse of Scorpia and MI6 never using Alex again. Scorpia Rising had been intended to be the last book ever, and that stood for six years until Horowitz decided to write a new one, and he felt the need to invoke this trope despite the fact that previous volumes pointedly hadn't.
