Books like skeleton key

Skeleton Keyis the third book in theAlex Riderseries written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2002, and in the United States on April 28, 2003.

On the fictional island of Skeleton Key, off the coast of Cuba, three men meet and supply General Alexei Sarov with uranium and attempt to blackmail him into giving them $1 million more or they will go to the American authorities. Taking this as a threat, General Sarov kills them by making the plane fall into a crocodile-infested waters as it is about to take off.

Meanwhile, after the events of Point Blanc, John Crawley approaches Alex at school and offers him tickets to Wimbledon where he goes undercover as a ball boy to investigate a break-in. While managing to foil the Chinese Triad gang Big Circle's attempt for match-fixing, Alex is targeted by the triad gang. After a second attempt on his life is made while surfing on vacation with Sabina Pleasure, whom he befriended at Wimbledon, both MI6 and the CIA arrange to send him with CIA agents Tom Turner (rennamed "Glen Carver" in American versions of the novel) and Belinda Troy to Skeleton Key to investigate General Sarov. The CIA is concerned about the actions of Sarov and his meeting with the Russian president (and a childhood friend of Sarov's) Boris Kiriyenko in a few days' time. En route to Skeleton Key, the 'family' of Alex, Turner, and Troy stop in Miami. Much to Alex's frustration, the two CIA agents are openly unhappy about bringing Alex and they attempt to keep as much information from Alex as possible, clearly discrediting him. Turner meets a criminal known as 'the Salesman' on a boat, theMayfair Lady, suspecting that the Salesman was involved in a deal with Sarov, who did indeed give Sarov his uranium. The Salesman, however, is aware of Turner's true identity and plans to kill and dump him in the sea. Alex sneaks aboard the boat, knocks out a guard by using a drugged dart in a mobile phone, and sets fire to it, causing a distraction. While both Alex and Turner escape by jumping into the sea, theMayfair Ladysuddenly explodes, killing everyone on board. Turner blames Alex for causing the explosion, who insists he wasn't responsible.