JIMMY COATES: REVENGE (10+)
by Joe Craig

KILL SWAP (12+)
by James Lovegrove

DESPITE THE SEARCH for the next Anthony Horowitz or J. K. Rowling, children’s publishers often fail to realise when they have struck gold. They pump money into solemn, literary offerings by established authors which no normal child is going to hanker after and leave the rip-roaring read to fend for itself.

Joe Craig is a case in point. His Jimmy Coates series is about a twelve-year-old boy, who thinks he is normal until he discovers that he is only 38 per cent human.

Scientists have manipulated genetics to grow Jimmy into something that will become an assassin, “designed to reach active service capability” once he is 18.

When he is frightened or angry, Jimmy’s programming takes over, enabling him to do things that no normal child could: from swimming underwater without breathing to fighting against trained killers.

There are plenty of these around, because Britain has become a police state, once ruled by a Blairite dictator whom Jimmy’s father has murdered - and supplanted as Prime Minister. Jimmy is on the run with his mother, his best friend, his sister and his best friend’s parents. Two other assassins hunting him have capabilities just like his. One, Mitchell, is older than Jimmy, so more advanced.

Boys love this kind of stuff, and so do girls. Jimmy is a pint-sized version of RoboCop or Terminator, but he loves his Mum and sister, and wants to protect them; with his best friend Felix, they are what helps him to fight his programming and stay true to the flawed, merciful human within.

In Revenge, the third of the series, Jimmy’s new opponent is a pretty French girl, and their fight in the opening chapter is as funny as it is frightening. Zafi can pop her eyeballs out for kicks; she can flirt while figuring out the best way to kill. Jimmy travels to America to gain new allies and unravel the mystery of his strange dreams. Little does he know that his masters have found a way to increase his programming. Even if he can fight against it, can he save Zafi?

These are not literary novels, although they are written by a Cambridge philosophy graduate who clearly enjoys playing with concepts of justice and the essential self.

Yet, like Anthony Horowitz’s splendid fantasies, they tap into almost everything a bolshy boy wants and feels. Immensely clever, immediately engaging, they will prepare a child for Orwell and Huxley.

Barrington Stoke is a new venture publishing short novels for reluctant readers. Universally excellent, its list features thrillers by such leading authors such as Robert Swindells, Kaye Umansky, Terry Deary and Catherine McPhail. James Lovegrove’s Kill Swap is typically clever and gripping.

Jack’s father is in debt to a gangster. He rings a mysterious company called Trouble Fix and is told that the gangster will be murdered if Jack murders a banker in turn. It’s like Strangers on a Train crossed with Big Brother, as the plot twists in an unexpected direction. Written in clear, terse prose, and typeset in easy-to-read paragraphs, this is hard-edged, fast-paced reading that does credit to an excellent enterprise.

Both of these books are pure gold for boys who have read everything by Anthony Horowitz — or have not been able to tackle him yet.

Revenge HarperCollins, £5.99; 320pp £5.69 (free p&p) Kill Swap Barrington Stoke, £4.99; 96pp £4.74 (free p&p) 0870 1608080 timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist