Summary: Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz is a novel written about a teenage spy. It is one of several in the Alex Rider series. In the story, Alex Rider is a normal fourteen-year-old kid. Except he is not normal at all. When he was young his parents were killed in a "plane crash" that was really a terrorist organization getting revenge on Alex's father. His father was a spy for British intelligence agency MI6. Being very successful, he took down many terrorist groups and threats to his country.
Since Alex's parents deaths, he has lived with his uncle who is also a spy. Alex does not know this but he has also been trained by his uncle to be a spy himself knowing karate, extreme sports, survival tactics, and weapon skills. All of this puts Alex into the position where MI6 actually recruits him to be a spy after his uncle is killed as well. Alex unknowingly accepts and is pushed into a world of crime and sabotage.
Moving ahead several years and Alex has saved the world several times and wants to be done with all of the spy work. However, while on a vacation to Scotland he meets the leader of a charity organization called First Aid. First Aid is run by Desmond McCain and provides support for disasters all over the world. Alex gets a weird feeling about McCain and after they leave the party their car is mysteriously plunged into a lake called Loch Arkaig. After surviving the car accident Alex goes home to Britain but is asked by MI6 to check out a local genetic engineering program called Greenfields. MI6 suspects foul play at the research center and sends Alex to investigate. He discovers that Desmond McCain is sending genetically modified wheat to Kenya containing an active spore of the poison ricin. In order to activate the poison though a chemical activator must be spread onto a field. After this happens the spores will travel by wind and cross into many parts of Africa.
McCain's master plan is to then notify the public of the catastrophe and collect the money people give towards the cause. He does not plan on using the money to help however, but actually to make himself rich and disappear with a new identity. Alex Rider learns of this and is a danger to him however and so he gets kidnapped and brought to Kenya and McCain's safari camp. There he is supposed to be killed until he escapes and tries to find a way to destroy the rice field. Using a bomb, Alex makes it to the Simba Dam after being followed by trained guards. He then sets off the bomb and breaks the dam to flood the rice field. He is then rescued by a fellow agent and starts heading home until being met by Desmond McCain at an airstrip. After several minutes of trying to kill Alex, McCain is blown up by a fuel barrel with a time bomb attached to it. However, Alex is hurt too and spends days in a hospital before finally getting to return home from saving millions of people once again.
Since Alex's parents deaths, he has lived with his uncle who is also a spy. Alex does not know this but he has also been trained by his uncle to be a spy himself knowing karate, extreme sports, survival tactics, and weapon skills. All of this puts Alex into the position where MI6 actually recruits him to be a spy after his uncle is killed as well. Alex unknowingly accepts and is pushed into a world of crime and sabotage.
Moving ahead several years and Alex has saved the world several times and wants to be done with all of the spy work. However, while on a vacation to Scotland he meets the leader of a charity organization called First Aid. First Aid is run by Desmond McCain and provides support for disasters all over the world. Alex gets a weird feeling about McCain and after they leave the party their car is mysteriously plunged into a lake called Loch Arkaig. After surviving the car accident Alex goes home to Britain but is asked by MI6 to check out a local genetic engineering program called Greenfields. MI6 suspects foul play at the research center and sends Alex to investigate. He discovers that Desmond McCain is sending genetically modified wheat to Kenya containing an active spore of the poison ricin. In order to activate the poison though a chemical activator must be spread onto a field. After this happens the spores will travel by wind and cross into many parts of Africa.
McCain's master plan is to then notify the public of the catastrophe and collect the money people give towards the cause. He does not plan on using the money to help however, but actually to make himself rich and disappear with a new identity. Alex Rider learns of this and is a danger to him however and so he gets kidnapped and brought to Kenya and McCain's safari camp. There he is supposed to be killed until he escapes and tries to find a way to destroy the rice field. Using a bomb, Alex makes it to the Simba Dam after being followed by trained guards. He then sets off the bomb and breaks the dam to flood the rice field. He is then rescued by a fellow agent and starts heading home until being met by Desmond McCain at an airstrip. After several minutes of trying to kill Alex, McCain is blown up by a fuel barrel with a time bomb attached to it. However, Alex is hurt too and spends days in a hospital before finally getting to return home from saving millions of people once again.