Are the Alex Rider books suitable for ds aged 8?

[CeliaFate]

He saw them while I was browsing on Amazon and read an excerpt. He loved it. Is it suitable for 8 year olds?

My 7 yr old DS has an Alex Rider book from the school library. It is 400 odd pages long but apparantly these books are very popular with the other kids in the class. It seems to involves MI5 spies and the Iraq war? with associated shooting and violence. I don't have an objection to the book as such ( I am pleased he is attempting to read such a long book) but just wonder how much DS understands. DS claims he loves the book and has nearly finished it in under a week.

They are fab books. I think my son got into them in year 4.

But beware: one book starts with Alex going after a local drug dealer - so I suddenly had to explain what drugs were, in 5 mins at bed time; second Anthony Horowitz doesn't dumb down his language, so when being read one by a very bright year 6 girl we came across one word neither of us knew.

Eek! What was the word? (Fans self, prepares for lengthy chats)