The Skulduggery Pleasant series
Skulduggery Pleasant is a hero like no other – a skeletal undead wizard with a penchant for burglary and wisecracks, he uses his formidable magical powers (as well as his sharp wits) to battle his evil arch-nemesis Nefarian Serpine and thwart his chilling plans for world domination.
A dizzying mix of thriller, horror, mystery and dark comedy, Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant series will have readers young and old held transfixed by the raucous and wildly imaginative adventures of the skull-faced master detective and his young companion Stephanie Edgley (AKA Valkyrie Cain).
The Skulduggery Pleasant series has already been showered with awards, including the Red House Children's Book Award, the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award, the Bolton Children's Book Award and the Irish Book of the Decade. High praise indeed, and the series only looks set to grow in popularity in the future, with talk of a Hollywood movie In the pipeline.
If you haven't read any of the Skulduggery Pleasant books yourself yet, there's a free short story called The Lost Art of World Domination available for free on the official Skulduggery Pleasant website.
Skulduggery Pleasant – Book One
Twelve year old Stephanie Edgley lives a dull and dreary normal life until her uncle, a successful horror novelist, dies and leaves her his ample estate. However, she soon discovers that her uncle was not exactly what he seemed, and she soon finds herself embroiled in a supernatural mystery which introduces her to the improbably enigmatic figure of Skulduggery Pleasant, the world's greatest undead detective.
Skulduggery Pleasant Book Two: Playing with Fire
Having taken on the magical name of Valkyrie Cain, Stephanie joins forces again with Skulduggery in order to prevent the fearsome Faceless Ones – dark gods from another time – from returning to walk the earth once more. With the fate of humanity itself hanging in the balance, Skulduggery and Valkyrie must utilise all their skills to keep the forces of evil at bay.
Skulduggery Pleasant Book Three: The Faceless Ones
The struggle to prevent the return of the Faceless Ones continues as Valkyrie and Skulduggery investigate the murders of four Teleporters. The recent killings appear to be related to a 50-year-old mystery in which another Teleporter was slain by an unknown hand…
Featuring an unlikely cast of fantastical characters, The Faceless Ones takes the Skulduggery Pleasant series onto a new level of suspenseful storytelling, always tinged with that brand of sharp-witted humour that Skulduggery has made his own.
Skulduggery Pleasant Book Four: Dark Days
As Valkyrie's magical skills improve, her adventures grow even more dangerous as she ventures into another dimension to rescue Skulduggery Pleasant from the foreboding menace of the Faceless Ones. An ominous vision foretells tragedy for Valkyrie and her family – she will face her ultimate test if she is to prevail and safeguard the world from a threat it can barely even imagine…
Skulduggery Pleasant Book Five: Mortal Coil
Valkyrie harbours a terrible secret which threatens to irrevocably change her life and the lives of those closest to her as the larger machinations of the Skulduggery Pleasant series begin to come to fruition and make themselves known. Remnants, evil lost souls who possess the bodies of their victims, pose a growing threat as events begin to spiral out of control…
Skulduggery Pleasant Book Six: Death Bringer
Tensions rise for Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery Pleasant and their motley crew of friends and associates as the fulfilment of the Death Bringer prophecy appears to be imminent. However, as is usually the case in the madcap adventures of the world's greatest undead detective, things are rarely as straightforward as they seem, and things soon take a darker turn as the plot unfolds…
