“This isn’t so bad. You’ve been in worse situations. Fighting against a sword that can’t be beaten. Battling sixteen million unkillable demons in the middle of the desert. Falling thirty thousand feet without a freaking parachute. This is easy. This is a piece of cake” (149). It depends on what you think easy is. If easy is being imprisoned in a top secret base in the middle of nowhere, being tracked down by a lunatic whose father you killed, and being caught in between two of the most vicious organizations in the world, then this is no problem for Alfred Kropp in Rick Yancey’s new book Alfred Kropp the Thirteenth Skull.


In The Thirteenth Skull, Alfred has inherited his father’s multibillion dollar company, Samson Industries. Alfred and his guardian, Samuel, are talking about how things have begun to calm down, until an assassin shoots Alfred and Samuel. While they are in the hospital, Alfred learns his father’s business was burnt to the ground. Alfred gets released from the hospital, but shortly gets captured by the “company” (94). This company is known as OIPEP (Office of Interdimensional Paradoxes and Extraordinary Phenomenon). Before Alfred can get to the OIPEP headquarters, he is captured by Jourdain Garmott, the son of Mogart, the man Alfred killed. Jourdain has come seeking vengeance for his dead father and says he will kill Alfred and begin his quest for the thirteenth skull. Before Alfred can be killed, OIPEP come and take Alfred to headquarters where he is imprisoned. Can Alfred escape? Can he stop Garmott? What is the thirteenth skull?

Rick Yancey is the author of the three books in the best selling Alfred Kropp series. Rick Yansey lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and three sons Jonathan, Jacob, and Joshua. He says that his sons and their fascination for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table gave him the idea for the Alfred Kopp.

I think that The Thirteenth Skull was an action packed, fast paced, adventurous book. This book was very humorous such as “The number keeps Kropping up” (126) and “Nueve smiled and nodded as though to say ah, of course, the ninjas have arrived” (78). The book was filled with lots of action scenes that made you want to keep reading, such as when Alfred fights an OIPEP agent on top of a bus. The author incorporated the theme of trust in such a thrilling book by slowing down the action, like when Ashley betrays Alfred and he still fights with her against OIPEP. This book was an amazing read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries and humorous fast paced books.