Product Description

Get ready for the biggest NEW publishing phenomenon of 2007! "So you won't keep anything from me again?" He put his hand to his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die." "Okay then. Though you don't actually have a heart," she said. "I know." "And technically, you've already died." "I know that too." "Just so we're clear." Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source -- the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard. When all hell breaks loose, it's lucky for Skulduggery that he's already dead. Though he's about to discover that being a skeleton doesn't stop you from being tortured, if the torturer is determined enough. And if there's anything Skulduggery hates, it's torture! Will evil win the day? Will Stephanie and Skulduggery stop bickering long enough to stop it? One thing's for sure: evil won't know what's hit it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19346 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Review
'Make no bones about it: Skullduggery Pleasant serves up a thoroughly satisfying blend of humour, magic and adventure. Once you've met Stephanie and Skullduggery, you'll be clamouring for a sequel.' Rick Riordan 'Hugely enjoyable -- a thrill-a-minute adventure.' Jonathan Stroud

About the Author
Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. "I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave," he says, "or she would be if she were dead."

Customer Reviews

Just another predictable novel...
With a cover as flashy as this you'd atleast expect something along the lines of decent writing...
But no. We get this...
I couldn't get any further then the third chapter - I got so bored early on, probably because i've grown up reading books from the great authors, Darren Shan, Ray Bradbury, Keith Gray... ETC...
This had the lamest main character i think i've ever come across, she had no personality, not at the begining anyway! Pfft! That's certainly a few quid that could have been spent better!
Acctually it was a kind of good idea, but i guess the authors simple writing techniques had rather let the book down a bit to much, i may add...

a super mega awesome incredible book of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought it was an incredible book because of the vocabulary, the adventure. I really liked the main character and can't wait to read the second book!

A great TV show, but sadly it's a book...
A lively, energetic, occasionally funny book, but this is TV-written-down, and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' at that...

It's not exactly that there's much wrong with this book - it's an enjoyable, fairly absorbing read, perfect for keeping an eight-year-old quiet for a day - but it feels as if it's in the wrong medium. Derek Landy would be a great writer for a TV series('Buffy', 'Angel', 'Charmed', even 'Dr. Who'). He has a great ear for dialogue, especially the wisecrack, some great, vivid ideas, and an assured and compelling ability to sketch characters in only a few strokes. But sadly the book suffers from being a book: the special effects aren't as impressive as they should be, the fight sequences are long, uninventive and unimaginatively written, and there is nothing at all in the book that wouldn't work as well or better on TV. Second only to being dull - which this isn't - this is the worst crime a children's book can commit; we shouldn't be surprised that children prefer TV if the books we give them are only second-rate TV themselves. It's a great shame, because 'Skulduggery Pleasant' has some fantastic ideas, a nice (if unoriginal) premise, and strong central characters (although I notice, wearily, that the ubiquitous feisty young girl is making an another appearance). The writing style doesn't have much going for it, but there's not much to make you wince, and there's some genuinely laugh-aloud humour that would appeal both to adults and to children. But unfortunately my prevailing impression is of a book that's impatient with being a book, and of a writer who's more excited by film or TV than by books - which means it's a book of missed opportunities, striving after CGI and slick fight sequences, without any real interest in what, finally, should be at the heart of story-telling: good writing.