The 13-year-old, pint-size mastermind of every heist known to man -- or to fairy -- is back. And in the latest installment of the "Artemis Fowl" series, time is running out not for Artemis' poor adversaries, but for him. His father, rescued from the Russian mafia in the previous book, wants the Fowl dynasty to go straight. But our hardworking boy-criminal wants to pull off just one more teensy-weensy, money-making scam before he gives up his life of crime.
This time Fowl is trying to cash in on technology that he stole from the fairy people in the first book. His latest victim: American tycoon Jon Spiro. Artemis threatens to put Spiro out of business by releasing the C Cube, whose omni-sensors can read any signal, "electrical or organic" (even fairy signals). If word of the C Cube gets out, Spiro's communications technology will be rendered useless overnight -- unless, of course Spiro can make it worth Artemis' while to sit tight on this revolutionary piece of equipment.
When Artemis takes on a fellow human, though, he makes an enemy who may not be as smart as the fairies, but who is far more willing to play dirty. Spiro seizes the C Cube, but finds that getting his hands on slippery Artemis is another matter. He needs Artemis because the boy-genius has built an "eternity code" into the cube that prevents it from being used by anyone but him. Spiro won't stop at anything -- he'll hurt, maim, kill, do all those things that humans are superlatively good at doing and that have kept fairies away from humans for so long.