This book is pretty good. There is some suspense that (if you are able to bear this sad, unfortunate tale) will keep you reading. Among the suspenseful events are a masked scout, a climb up a frozen waterfall, and some very evil plots. Read the previous books to understand the whole plot.

I read this final book of the Alex Rider series (which, interestingly enough, has a story-line that happened before the events of the first book) because I was already interested in the Alex Rider spy/action series. This book provides a very exciting and suspenseful origin story of the assassin that changed Alex Rider's life forever, told from his own perspective. Some of the things we never knew about Yasha (alias Yassen) Gregorovich are revealed. Younger readers should not read this because of some violent content such as murder.