Skelation Key is the third Alex Rider novel, published in 2001.
After adapting Point Blanc, Alex Rider skipped over this novel in favour of Eagle Strike.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: This is implied when General Sarov is Driven to Suicide; it is more overt in the graphic novel adaptation, where he seems visibly distressed by Alex's final rejection and sheds a tear as he puts the gun to his head.
- Animal Espionage: Referred to in passing when Byrne talks about putting a cat in a Korean embassy to spy on them. He claims that the Koreans ate it, although it's possible he was joking.
- Bowdlerise: Early editions had Sarov complain about many Russians being drug addicts, as well as Russian women and children working as prostitutes, in The New Russia; later editions replace it with Sarov complaining about the greedy oligarchs.
- The Cavalry: Alex is about to be killed by The Dragon when the Russian navy storm the base. Although Alex still has to defeat The Dragon by himself, the raid provides the necessary distraction for him to do so, and disposes of the rest of Sarov's Mooks.
- Composite Character: The Russian president is a strange amalgamation of Vladimir Putin (looks), Boris Yeltsin (first name and habits) and Sergey Kiriyenko, one of Yeltsin's prime ministers before Putin (last name).
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Sarov's henchman puts Alex on a conveyor belt that feeds into a sugar grinding machine and threatens to grind him up unless he gives information.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The CIA agents Troy and Troy get this in Skeleton Key, leaving Alex to finish the mission.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the US printing, the names of the two CIA agents, Turner and Troy, were changed for unknown reasons. They are mentioned in passing three books later in Ark Angel, but the renaming was forgotten about and their original names were used, which would have been confusing for anyone not aware of the change.
- Empathic Environment: At the end of the novel Alex is in low spirits; as he heads out for a walk, the sky is gray and cloudy, even though it was forecasted to be sunny. Then Sabina shows up unexpectedly and invites him to join her family on vacation; he accepts, and as they walk off together, Alex notices the sun is out.It looked as if it was going to be a bright day after all.
- Earlier, when Turner and Troy are about to be Killed Offscreen, "the whole sky was turning to blood".
- Empty Quiver: Although not stolen per se, much of the plot of 'centres around General Sarov obtaining black market plutonium to manufacture his own dirty bomb, and what he intends to do with the nuke once he has it.
- Forklift Fu: A triad member attempts to kill Alex with a forklift.
- For Want Of A Nail: Sarov's plan would've succeeded hadn't Alex had gotten involved in two incidents:
- The investigation into a break-in at Wimbledon that leads to Alex being suggested to take the Skeleton Key mission in the first place due to angering the Chinese Red Circle.
- During a failed attempt to escape from Sarov during a plane refueling stop in Edinburgh, Alex runs into a security guard who doesn't believe him over the events, only for Conrad to arrive and shoot him dead. It turns out that his superiors were listening to this event over his radio, who then contacted MI6 after finding his body, leading to the Russian Army and Navy arriving in the climax to help Alex.
- Earlier, if a great white shark didn't attack Alex when it did, he would've most probably died the same way as Turner and Troy.
- Gilded Cage: Sarov keeps Alex in a very nice place during his captivity. Sarov even comments on this.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Alex snatches a skateboard from a group of teenagers and uses it in an attempt to catch a yacht that is pulling away from the dock. He ramps off the jetty and manages to land on the yacht, but the skateboard plunges into the ocean.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: An Exploited Trope, as in one later edition the exploding keyring of Michael Owen was changed to an exploding keyring of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
- Killed Offscreen: a CIA operative oversees Alex diving into the sea. When Alex returns, the man has a knife in his back and Conrad is waiting.
- Manipulative Editing: Sarov records an interview with the Russian President while the latter is fantastically drunk and doesn’t care about anything. He plans to edit this to make the President look bad when the dust has blown over.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Alex's investigation into a break-in at Useful Notes/Wimbledon causes him to stumble upon a match-fixing scheme by the Chinese Red Circle triad which angers them to Alex being heavily suggested to take a (coincidental) overseas mission for his safety, which leads to the discovery of a plot to blow up nuclear submarines to contaminate most of Western Europe in an attempt to return to the Soviet era. So an investigation into a minor crime leads to a major plot that leads to a much bigger, unrelated one.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Somewhat more complicated than usual. Carlo and Marc, either on behalf of Salesman or on their own accord (it isn't made clear in the book), blackmail Sarov for money. In retaliation, Sarov arranges the assassination of Salesman, which happens exactly at the right moment to save Alex and Turner's lives.
- A Nuclear Error: General Sarov plans to detonate a nuclear bomb atop the rusting Russian nuclear submarines in the naval base, which are armed with nuclear missiles. Sarov intends this disaster to appear to be an accident, caused by the current Russian government failing to properly maintain its nuclear fleet. The resulting fallout cloud will contaminate most of Western Europe and allow Russia to return to the glory of its Soviet days, or so Sarov believes.
- Paid Harem: Some hot Cuban chicks accompany the Russian President on his vacation; it's implied he had sex with them behind the scenes.
- Plot Hole: A minor one. Alex immediately blows his cover within Conrad's earshot on Garcia's boat, but then insists on his cover story in the subsequent interrogation, seemingly completely forgetting about the episode. Conrad doesn't comment on that either, but maybe he's just been enjoying an opportunity for Cold-Blooded Torture too much.
- Ramp Jump: Alex steals a skateboard to get onto a departing yacht, ramping off the jetty and over the water to catch the boat's railing.
- Russians with Rusting Rockets: Sarov intends to exploit the sad state of affairs in the Russian navy for his own benefit. The state of the Murmansk Nuclear Submarine Repair Shipyard shows that Villain Has a Point.
- And then somewhat subverted at the end of the novel - the Russian government, on a very short notice, sends in The Cavalry that relatively easily overpowers Sarov's forces.
- Shown Their Work: There was a real vessel named Lepse in the Russian Northern fleet, which indeed held 639 nuclear fuel rods. It was irradiated because of an accident and was notoriously difficult to dispose of because of that (the works only started in 2012, years after the novel was published). The only mistake (maybe deliberate) is that the Lepse was a nuclear refuelling ship for icebreakers, not a nuclear submarine.
- Skewed Priorities: Lampshaded and Subverted by Alex in the climax.Certainly Sarov wouldn’t have been amused. A Western boy about to face death and all he could think about was gum!note
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Subverted—The airport security at Cayo Esqueleto is designed to look run-down but is actually quite sophisticated and good at catching spies. The head of security only allows Troy, Carver and Alex to pass since he doesn't want to (publicly) arrest a child.
- The Triads and the Tongs: In the beginning of then novel, a triad known as "Big Circle" serves as the Starter Villain to Alex, seeking retribution after he injured and captured two of their members, which forces him to leave Britain. They're dealth with offscreen after MI6 returns the two men and convinces them to back off.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Alex while undercover gets to briefly enjoy having a family. Agents Troy and Carver, who are pretending to be his parents, get killed during the mission.
