Product Description

Meet the great Skulduggery Pleasant: wise-cracking detective, powerful magician, master of dirty tricks and burglary (in the name of the greater good, of course). Oh yeah. And dead. Then there's his sidekick, Stephanie. She's! well, she's a twelve-year-old girl. With a pair like this on the case, evil had better watch out! "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: #75968 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'Hugely enjoyable -- a thrill-a-minute adventure.' Jonathan Stroud 'It's exciting, pacy, nicely handled and fun. I sincerely hope Landy revisits these characters.' Philip Ardagh, Guardian 'A gripping debut.' Phil Hogan, Observer 'Skulduggery 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 "A remarkably accomplished debut with wonderful dialogue." Robert Dunbar, Irish Times "[Landy's] fight scenes are perfectly pitched. His characters are exceptionally well drawn and delightfully colourful! Reading [this book] is like riding a rollercoaster." Irish Independent "Landy's witty style will win him fans of all ages! With writing of this standard, a rattling plot and definite potential for cross-over appeal, it's a good job Harry's [Potter] resigning before he's forcibly retired." Irish Mail on Sunday "Humour and magic combine in this thrilling adventure." Waterstone's Books Quarterly "!people in the book world are raving about this book." Glasgow Herald "It's pacy, it's funny, it's irreverent. The relationship between Skulduggery and Stephanie is tremendously strong. Stephanie is a splendid character -- blunt, logical and outspoken! We enjoyed Skkulduggery Pleasant. Muchly. Roll on volume two!" The Book Bag "A rip-roaring adventure." Irish Sunday Independent "Full of black humour, super powers, mysteries, murder and mayhem." Carousel "Landy's witty style will win him fans of all ages! With writing of this standard, a rattling plot and definite potential for cross-over appeal, it's a good job Harry's resigning before he's forcibly retired." Irish Mail on Sunday "A remarkably accomplished debut with wonderful dialogue." Robert Dunbar, Irish Times "[Landy's] fight scenes are perfectly pitched. His characters are exceptionally well drawn and delightfully colourful! Reading [this book] is like riding a rollercoaster" Irish Independent "A debut that brings a much-needed twist to the mystery/fantasy genre with its wisecracking detective hero." New York Times "Readers will be skipping meals and sleep to get to the end." Kirkus Reviews "An utterly charming debut, perfect for the Potter crowd." Publishers Weekly

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

Move along, there's nothing to see here...
Being a big fan of the Skulduggery Pleasant series I snapped this up, and can honestly say I wish I hadn't bothered...
What you get in the 'Battle Pack' isn't very clear in the various website descriptions (most simply have a review of the book and leave no mention of what the pack actually entails) but here is what you get:-

A paperback copy of the first Skulduggery book (which, chances are, you already own otherwise you wouldn't be checking it out) and a pretty poor 'Top Trumps' style game.

Top Trumps is a lousy game at the best of times, but even die-hard fans will struggle to find anything to get excited about this pack; the artwork is in a mediocre monochrome so you wouldn't even want to frame them or anything...

This could have been an opportunity to create an original new game, or even paste the theme onto a respectable game engine, but instead the easy and cheap route was taken. AVOID

Skulduggery Pleasant Battle Pack
This battle pack is amazing and a good collector's item. The pack contains 'Skulduggery Pleasant'-the first book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series-and 30 game cards of characters from the first three Skulduggery Pleasant books. The artwork is fabulous on each of the cards. It is in a Top Trumps style with five categories: Fighting Ability, Intelligence, Elemental Magic, Adept Magic and Total Battle Power. When I got pack and had a look at the cards I loved them and thought they were great! The cards give you an in-depth look at how skilled each of the characters are and give you extra information. If you haven't got the book buy this set and if you have got the book I'd advise you to consider buying it anyway.