Alex Rider must once again do battle against the terrorist organization responsible for the death of his parents--Scorpia--when their plot in the Middle East poses a threat to humanity, but this time around the risks are bigger and Alex will not walk away so easily.

London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap -- a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place. Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper...

"'You shouldn't be here. It's too late ...' These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine--a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth �3,000, to be precise. Odd, considering he didn't drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of...