''The Night of the Scorpion'' is the second book in the ''Pentagram'' series by British author

Anthony Horowitz Anthony John Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the '' Alex Rider'' series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spi ...

. It was published and released in the United Kingdom on 4 January 1985 by Patrick Hardy Books and 1 November 1988 in the United States by Putnam Pub Group. Initially envisioned as a

pentalogy A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- ''penta-'', "five" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are re ...

, only the first four books in the series were ever written and published. Between 2005 and 2012, Horowitz released an updated and re-imagined version of each of the first four books in the series, along with a fifth book to conclude the series. This series was marketed instead as ''

The Power of Five ''The Power of Five'' (known as ''The Gatekeepers'' in the US) is a series of five fantasy and suspense novels, written by English author Anthony Horowitz. Published between 2005 and 2012, it is an updated re-imagining of Horowitz's ''Pent ...

'' (re-titled as ''The Gatekeepers'' in the US). The book which ''The Night of the Scorpion'' forms the basis of was released in 2006 under the name ''

Evil Star Evil Star is the name of two supervillains appearing in DC Comics publications. Publication history The Guy Pompton version of Evil Star debuted in ''All-Star Comics'' #44 and was created by John Broome and Irwin Hasen. The alien version of Evi ...

''.

Plot summary

After the events of the previous novel, ''The Night of the Scorpion'' follows Martin Hopkins and journalist Richard Cole as they travel together to Peru, only to immediately get separated and chased by a sinister Mr Todd. As Martin befriends a mysterious stranger called Pedro, they end up getting caught up with precognitions, ancient secrets,

artificial satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation (GPS), broadcasting, scientifi ...

, and the mysterious Nazca Lines in the Nazca Desert.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed ''The Night of the Scorpion'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' #80, and stated that "it seems a pretty feeble Ultimate Evil of the Universe which, as here, can be sent packing by the direct attack of two psychic kids. Evil should be made of sterner stuff ...."

Reviews

*Review by Muriel R. Becker (1985) in

Fantasy Review ''Fantasy Newsletter'', later renamed ''Fantasy Review'', was a major fantasy fanzine founded by Paul C. Allen and later issued by Robert A. Collins. Frequent contributors included Fritz Leiber and Gene Wolfe. Publication history The first iss ...

, August 1985https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17523 *Review by Graham Andrews (1986) in Paperback Inferno, #62

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Night of the Scorpion 1985 British novels Nazca Lines Novels set in Peru