Anthony Horowitz - Raven’s Gate

ANTHONY HOROWITZ is one of the most popular childrens writers working today. Both The Power of Five and Alex Rider are No.1 bestselling series and have been enjoyed by millions of readers worldwide. Anthony is particularly excited by Necropolis, which he sees as a major step in a new direction. For a start, its his first book with a full-blooded female at the heart of the action. It also develops the themes that began with Ravens Gate and sets up the epic finale which he plans to begin soon. Anthony was married in Hong Kong and went back there to research the book. Everything you read is inspired by what he saw.

The hugely successful Alex Rider series, which has spurred a trend of junior spy books, has achieved great critical acclaim and Anthony has won numerous awards including the Booksellers Association/Nielsen Author of the Year Award 2007, the Childrens Book of the Year Award at the 2006 British Book Awards, and the Red House Childrens Book Award. The first adventure, Stormbreaker, was made into a blockbuster movie, starring Alex Pettyfer, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy and Robbie Coltrane.

Anthonys other titles for Walker Books include the Diamond Brothers mysteries; Groosham Grange and its sequel, Return to Groosham Grange; The Devil and His Boy; Granny and The Switch. Anthony also writes extensively for TV, with programmes including Midsomer Murders, Poirot and the drama series Foyles War, which won the Lew Grade Audience Award 2003. He is married to television producer Jill Green and lives, reluctantly, in London with his two part-time sons, Nicholas and Cassian and their dog, Dreary.

You can find out more about Anthony and his books at:
www.anthonyhorowitz.com
www.powerof5.co.uk

Out now

Scorpia may be defeated, but the
Old Ones are definitely back!

THE POWER OF FIVE

Book Four

The next bestseller from
Anthony Horowitz

www.powerof5.co.uk

Alex Rider
youre never too young to die

Horowitz is pure class, stylish but action-packed being James Bond in miniature is way cooler than being a wizard.
Daily Mirror

Explosive, thrilling, action-packed - meet Alex Rider.
Guardian

The perfect hero genuine 21st century stuff.
Daily Telegraph

www.alexrider.com

Matt Freeman knew he was making a mistake.

He was sitting on a low wall outside Ipswich station, wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, shapeless, faded jeans, and trainers with frayed laces. It was six oclock in the evening and the London train had just pulled in. Behind him, commuters were fighting their way out of the station. The concourse was a tangle of cars, taxis and pedestrians, all of them trying to find their way home. A traffic light blinked from red to green but nothing moved. Somebody leant on their horn and the noise blared out, cutting through the damp evening air. Matt heard it and looked up briefly. But the crowd meant nothing to him. He wasnt part of it. He never had been and he sometimes thought he never would be.

Two men carrying umbrellas walked past and glanced at him disapprovingly. They probably thought he was up to no good. The way he was sitting hunched forward with his knees apart made him look somehow dangerous, and older than fourteen. He had broad shoulders, a well-developed, muscular body and bright blue, intelligent eyes. His hair was black, cut very short. Give him another five years and he could be a footballer or a model or, like plenty of others, both.

His first name was Matthew but he always called himself Matt. As the troubles had begun to pile up in his life, he had used his surname less and less until it was no longer a part of him. Freeman was the name on the school register and on the truancy list, and it was a name well known to the local social services. But Matthew never wrote it down and seldom spoke it. Matt was enough. The name suited him. After all, for as long as he could remember, people had been walking all over him.

He watched the two men with umbrellas cross the bridge and disappear in the direction of the city centre. Matt hadnt been born in Ipswich. He had been brought here and he hated everything about the place. For a start, it wasnt a city. It was too small. But it had none of the charm of a village or a market town. It was really just an oversized shopping centre with the same shops and supermarkets that you saw everywhere else. You could swim in the Crown Pools or you could see movies at the multiplex or, if you could afford it, there was an artificial ski slope and go-karting. But that was about it. It didnt even have a decent football team.

Matt had just three pounds in his pocket, saved up from his newspaper round. There was another twenty pounds at home, hidden in a box under his bed. He needed money for the same reason as every other teenager in Ipswich. It wasnt just because his trainers were falling apart and the games on his XBox were six months out of date. Money was power. Money was independence. He didnt have any and he was here tonight because he wanted some.

But already he was wishing he hadnt come. It was wrong. It was stupid. Why had he ever agreed?

He glanced at his watch. Ten past six. They had arranged to meet at a quarter to. Well, that was excuse enough. He swung himself off the wall and headed across the station front. But he hadnt taken more than a couple of steps before another, older boy appeared out of nowhere, blocking his path.

You off then, Matt? the boy asked.

I thought you werent coming, Matt said.

Oh yes? And why did you think that?

Because youre twenty-five minutes late. Because Im cold. Because youre about as reliable as a local bus. That was what Matt wanted to say. But the words didnt come. He just shrugged.

The other boy smiled. His name was Kelvin and he was seventeen, tall and scrawny with fair hair, pale skin and acne. He was dressed expensively in designer jeans and a soft leather jacket. Even when he had been at school, Kelvin had always had the best gear.

I got held up, he said.

Matt said nothing.

You havent had second thoughts, have you?

No.

Youve got nothing to worry about, Matt, mate. Its going to be easy. Charlie told me

Charlie was Kelvins older brother. Matt had never met him, which wasnt surprising. Charlie was in prison, in a young offenders institution just outside Manchester. Kelvin didnt often talk about him. But it was Charlie who had first heard about the warehouse.

It was fifteen minutes from the station, in an industrial zone. A warehouse stacked with CDs, video games and DVDs. Amazingly, it had no alarm systems and only one security guard, a retired policeman who was half-asleep most of the time, with his feet up and his head buried in a newspaper. Charlie knew all this because a friend of his had been in to do some electrical work. According to Charlie, you could break in with a bent paper clip and you could probably walk out with a couple of hundred quids worth of equipment. It was easy, just waiting to be taken.