ANTHONY HOROWITZ

How the British author rebooted teenage secret agent Alex Rider

- Jonathan Wright

HOW, AS A WRITER, DO YOU RETURN TO A character over multiple books without writing yourself into a corner? This was a problem that confronted Anthony Horowitz a few years back with one of his most famous creations: teenage secret agent Alex Rider. With some fanfare, he announced in 2012 that Russian Roulette would be the last Rider novel.

Looking back, Horowitz suggests, Alex Rider had matured – as anyone would after saving the world on multiple occasions – but in this process had lost some of his “old élan”, his zest for life. “I wanted him to be happy again, that’s the most important thing,” says Horowitz. “He is a role model and you cannot have a depressive role model in a children’s book or a book for young adults – whatever you want to call it.”

Rider being too downbeat is not a problem in Nightshade, the second novel to star the agent since he came out of premature retirement in Never Say Die (2017). With a fast-paced plot built around around the rise of a new criminal organisation, it’s huge fun and infused with an energy that, says Horowitz, he rediscovered in putting together a collection of Rider short stories, Secret Weapon.

TEENAGE KICKS