"Eagle Strike" by Anthony Horowitz

Lets say you were a spy on vacation with your friend and you see a contract killer pull up to a dock on a large boat. What would you do? If you answered go find out what the contract killer's plans are, then you would do exactly what Alex did in the beginning of "Eagle Strike" by Anthony Horowitz. Alex was on vacation with his friend Sabina and Alex saw Yassen Gregorovich, a contract killer, and had to know what he was up to. As a result, he got tangled in Damian Cray's evil plan. "Eagle Strike" is obviously follows the tragic mode of literature.

Anthony's book fits the plotline perfectly. For the world is in conflict Alex spots Yassen while on vacation with Sabina. And for the rise to power, Alex found out what was going on. As for the tragic flaw or human weakness, Alex was caught by Damian Cray. The tragic fall was when Sabina got pulled into Damian's plan as well. Lastly, the death or death symbolism was when Yassen told Alex that his dad was a contract killer too and that they were partners.

The characteristics matched as well as a little bit of symbolism too. For the characteristics, Alex was in control and the story was realistic. As for the symbolism, Anthony mentioned both red and night throughout the book. Red was mentioned in the second to last chapter after Yassen was shot his shirt turned red with blood. He mentioned night when Alex was forced to fight the bull in France.


Anthony Horowitz's book clearly matches the tragic mode of literature. Honesty always leads to trust appeared to be the moral because Alex tried to convince Sabina that he was a spy and it didn't work at first, but after she got sucked into Damian's plan, she believed that he really was a spy. The moral also appeared to be that not everyone will believe you until you prove it because Alex was the only one who believed that Damian was villainous, but it wasn't until after Damian died that MI6, the British intelligence agency, found out that Alex was right. Alex gained trust from MI6 after proving them wrong.