Russian Roulette (Alex Rider)

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I’ve finally started work on the eighth novel although I don’t think it’ll be out for quite a while. After much thought, I’ve decided to leave YASSEN (the book I was planning) to the very end of the series. This follows a whole series of school visits where people have been a bit half-hearted about the idea…and I do try to listen to what my readers say! So instead, I’m going to write a full-blooded Alex adventure which begins straight after SNAKEHEAD...-- In a general post Yassen Gregorovich is a recurring villain in the series, appearing in Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, and Russian Roulette. He is also mentioned in Scorpia and Snakehead. In the end of Stormbreaker he saves the life of Alex Rider by shooting Herod Sayle on a helicopter pad. He was a Russian-born contract killer, trained by, and apparently working for, the clandestine terrorist organisation Scorpia. A superb assassin, Yassen was believed to be one of the world's best.

Alex Rider Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz | Waterstones

Varga is a minor antagonist in Snakehead. He is a technician who helps Winston Yu to develop the detonation procedure for Royal Blue, and who Alex witnesses demonstrating the procedure to Major Yu and Captain de Wynter. He is later arrested by ASIS at the end of the novel. The following is a list of the protagonists recurring, appearing in, or referred to in the Alex Rider series, listed alphabetically. Sabina Pleasure is a protagonist who made her first appearance in the novel Skeleton Key and has gone on to appear in Eagle Strike, Snakehead, Crocodile Tears, Scorpia Rising and Never Say Die. She is romantically interested in Alex and has been supportive of his work as a teenage spy. Her parents are Edward Pleasure and Elizabeth “Liz” Pleasure. Nightshade is a freelance terror unit posing as a cult, specialising in capturing the children of families connected to the military, intelligence and other areas, and indoctrinating them to be the perfect child soldier, utterly obedient to the will of the "Teachers", who are the executive committee of Nightshade. The four Teachers, all Americans, are:

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Tom Harris is Alex's best friend at Brookland High School. He first appeared in the novel Scorpia, and has since appeared in Crocodile Tears, Scorpia Rising, Nightshade and Nightshade Revenge. Henryk does not contribute much to the novel, his only major appearances occurring towards the end of the story, when Alex and Sabina are forced to have afternoon tea with Cray, Henryk and Yassen, where Cray explains his plans to the two teenagers, to rid the world of drugs by firing twenty-five American nuclear missiles at various drug-running countries around the world, destroying those countries and their populations in the process. After Cray's men secure Air Force One for the takeover and missile launching, Henryk prepares the plane for take-off, with the destination implied to be Russia. The tenth book in the series, Russian Roulette, focuses on Gregorovich's early life and how he became an assassin. A couple of years later, Alex meets Sahara Sands again, where she reveals her father was working in the office of the American Secretary of Defense, and that his laptop hard drive contained classified information on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. da Silva had presumably been hired to steal the laptop and leak the data, which would have resulted in a huge embarrassment for the US government.

Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz - Goodreads Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz - Goodreads

The American Secretary of State is an unnamed minor character in the novel Scorpia Rising. She is described by Joe Byrne as a "hardliner," and is central to Scorpia agent Abdul Aziz al-Rahim's plan to have the Elgin Marbles returned to Greece (and is apparently of Greek extract herself). A potential rival to the US president, the Secretary of State is in Egypt to make a speech denouncing Britain as a world power – a speech guaranteed to give her international attention. Before Yassen was born, his father invented a deadlier version of anthrax which was highly contagious - the perfect biological weapon for military use, and which was capable of eliminating enemy troops and even entire villages and cities within days. Because of his unwillingness to utilize the properties of the virus for military use, he and his wife were exiled to the remote village of Estrov and forced to create transferable quantities of the virus for the Russian military; under the facade of producing pesticide for farmers. When Ian Rider died at the hands of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex, ready or not, was thrust into the world of international espionage--the world's only teenage spy. Alex vowed revenge against Yassen and the two have battled ever since. Yet, years ago, it was none other than Alex's own father who trained and mentored Yassen, turning him into the killer he would eventually become.In the film adaption of Stormbreaker, he was portrayed by Jimmy Carr, with the character's name changed (by an unusual request from the real MI6) to "John Crawford". In the TV series, he is played by Ace Bhatti, once again under the name "John Crawley".

Russian Roulette plot summary - Books tldr Russian Roulette plot summary - Books tldr

Later, after several successful missions, Yassen and John Rider were sent to Malta for an assassination, which turned out to be an MI6 stakeout. In the ensuing gun battle, Yassen shot several agents and wounded Ash. But he failed to kill Ash in his escape. During this skirmish, Yassen displays that, after all these years, he had mastered the techniques that he had struggled with when he first arrived at Malagosto, including surprising stealth, proficiency of hand-to-hand combat, expert marksmanship and incredible self-control. He shows that he is an extremely skilled tactician and is cut out to be one of the world's greatest assassins. Yassen (born 'Yasha' Gregorovich) was born in the village of Estrov, in Russia. His father was a researcher of chemical properties and a biologist; engaged in research at the University of Moscow. He always kept the true nature of his job a secret from Yassen. The Big Circle (collectively) is a secondary independent antagonist in Skeleton Key. They are a Chinese Triad gang involved in drugs, vice, illegal immigration, and gambling. Alex first encounters them at the Wimbledon tennis tournament when they attempt systematic match fixing to earn money in bets. After Alex foils this plan, he becomes a major target of the Triad, who send a high-ranking member after him in Cornwall. After this member fails too, Alex is sent undercover with CIA agents Tom Turner (Glen Carver in U.S. publications) and Belinda Troy for his safety. At the end of the book, Mrs. Jones reveals she bargained with the Triad in a prisoner exchange to leave Alex alone.Scorpia Rising - released 21 March 2011 in Australia, 22 March 2011 in the US and 31 March 2011 in the UK. One night, he overhears a conversation between Sharkovsky and his shareholders that had been responsible for the deaths of his parents and subsequent destruction of his village, having cut corners regarding safety at the factory to increase profit, and secretly vows to kill him. Yassen finds out that John Rider worked for MI6, as he found a special Power Plus radio transmitter in his bag. Yassen comes to the decision to kill Sharkovsky, and he travelled to the ' dacha'. He confronts the man in his study alone, and discovers he is now in a wheelchair and a very weaken state. Yassen reveals his heritage from Estrov and blames Sharkovsky for the death of his family and friends and the life that he lead, to which Sharkovsky shows no remorse. He then plays a reversed game of Russian Roulette (5 bullets and one empty chamber) on himself infront of Sharkovsky as a last chance to avoid his future life as a killer. Miraculously, Yassen survives and believes that fate has chosen this life for him. He then proceeds to vengefully kills Sharkovsky by shooting him between the eyes. He then kills Ivan (who walked immediately in the study room after he heard the shot) by shooting him once in the head and twice in the heart. Emotionlessly praising his revenge, and that he had killed for the first and second times in his life, he leaves Silver Forest. When it becomes clear that Point Blanc and Greif's Gemini Project are exposed, he reports this to SCORPIA and researches Alex Rider. At the climax of the season, when MI6 cannot tell the difference between Alex and Dr. Greif's clone, Yassen shoots the clone from a sniper position, saving Alex. John Crawley has been described as an "office manager" for MI6, and often acts as a messenger between Alex Rider and Special Operations, such as delivering him to MI6 in Stormbreaker and Point Blanc, informing him of his mission in Skeleton Key, visiting him in hospital in Ark Angel and, most recently, leading the "Invisible Man" operation against Harold Bulman in Crocodile Tears. He is known to have worked with John Rider, Alex's father, on a number of occasions and is described as having "the kind of face you forget while you're still looking at it".