Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of fantasy novels written by Irish author Derek Landy. The books chronicle the adventures of the skeleton detective, Skulduggery Pleasant and a teenage girl, Stephanie Edgley (Valkyrie Cain) along with other friends. The central story arc concerns Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world, finally find justice for her late uncle's death, and her internal struggle of keeping the darkness within her to stay within.

Since the release of the first novel, Skulduggery Pleasant, the series has been praised by both readers and critics.

The second novel, Playing With Fire, was released the following year, and the third, The Faceless Ones, in 2009. On 1 April 2010 the fourth book Dark Days was released, followed by Mortal Coil on September 1, 2010. Death Bringer, the sixth book, was released on September 1 the following year. A novella titled The End of the World was released on 26th February 2012, to coincide with World Book Day, and the seventh book in the series, titled Kingdom of the Wicked, was released in Australia and New Zealand on July 24th 2012,^[1] and the UK on the 30th of August.

Landy was initially contracted to write three books, with any further books depending on how well the first trilogy sold. The success of the first novels ensured that the deal was extended first to six books and in 2011, HarperCollins signed the deal for the final trilogy.^[2]

The unabridged audio versions of the books are available from Harper Collins Audio and are read by Rupert Degas.

Stephanie Edgley's novelist uncle dies, leaving her his vast mansion and the royalties from his best-selling books. At the reading of the will, a strange man in a tan overcoat, a hat, sunglasses and a scarf is present, who is left a piece of advice, along with Fergus and Beryl, Stephanie's none-too-liked aunt and uncle. Stephanie's aunt and uncle are given something as well: a seemingly useless brooch, a boat, and a car, which they both do not want. Spending a night alone in the mansion, Stephanie is attacked by a strange man, demanding she gives him a "key". As the man attacks Stephanie, the mysterious man in the tan overcoat from Gordon's funeral, known as Skulduggery Pleasant, arrives and saves her, throwing a fireball and then shooting the attacker. Skulduggery's disguise of a hat, wig and sunglasses fall off to reveal that he is an undead sorcerer, made up of only a skeleton held together by magic. He takes Stephanie as his partner and races to save the world from the Scepter of the Ancients, a mysterious staff located only in folklore. However, one of his old rivals has already retrieved it and Skulduggery may be too late to save the world, with or without Stephanie.

A year after the events of the first novel, Stephanie Edgley (now known as Valkyrie Cain) continues to work with Skulduggery Pleasant, a dead skeleton detective, capturing villains for The Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is now ruled by Thurid Guild in a new location after the massacre in the previous Sanctuary.

Soon Baron Vengeous (one of the original three generals of Mevolent) escapes his prison and begins searching for the armour of Lord Vile, another one of Mevolent's Generals with which he will be able to resurrect The Grotesquery, a hybrid monster made from a Faceless One's remains with the power to bring back the Faceless Ones. Arriving in Ireland, he meets an accomplice vampire named Dusk, and together they try to bring back the Faceless Ones and the secrets within them.

Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant are investigating the murders of four Teleporters. They go to tell Thurid Guild what they know. He refuses to rehire them and has hired Remus Crux instead, a bumbling detective that blindly follows Guild's orders in an attempt to impress him. After discovering the recent murders may have been linked to a Teleporter murder 50 years ago, Skulduggery and Valkyrie go and talk to the only Sea Hag that lives in a lake to see if they can get any information about the 50 year old murder. They discover a man named Batu killed the Teleporter and talk to the dead Teleporter whose body is lying at the bottom of the lake. After promising to bury him on dry land, the Sea Hag is enraged and tries to drown Valkyrie Cain. They also discover that an object called the Isthmus Anchor and a Teleporter would be able to open a gateway to the Faceless Ones allowing them to enslave the earth. With China Sorrows's help they locate a boy who is an unskilled Teleporter and save him from Billy-Ray Sanguine who is working for the Diablerie. Batu, the head of the Diablerie, wants to use the unskilled Teleporter, to open the portal. The Diablerie knows that experienced Teleporters, who are now dead, will not co-operate, and have the ability to close the portal so their only choice is to kill them and use Fletcher.

Soon Skulduggery and Valkyrie almost give up hope of stopping the Diablerie from bringing back the Faceless ones and seek an unstoppable weapon; the Sceptre of the Ancients. Valkyrie kills two of the Faceless ones. unfortunately after they led one of the gods to the portal it pulled Skulduggery in after it; into the land of the Faceless Ones...

Valkyrie is learning Necromancy and Skulduggery is gone. Valkyrie has been in search of the Isthmus Anchor (Skulduggery's real skull) which will open the portal to rescue Skulduggery. Dreylan Scarab, a man framed for the murder of Esryn Vanguard, is released from prison and is picked up by his son, Billy-Ray Sanguine. Meanwhile, Valkyrie is close to finding Skulduggery's head, but as she goes home, she is attacked in the night by the insane Remus Crux. Solomon Wreath (her teacher in Necromancy) saves her, but Valkyrie gets China to put symbols up around Haggard to alert China if anyone unwanted walks in. Valkyrie gets a meeting with a black market dealer but finds out the skull he gave her was a fake. But she steals the real one from the Sanctuary but gets arrested then beats her captors up and steals the real skull from Guilds office. Fletcher then reopens the portal. Valkyrie then enters, leaving China Sorrows and Fletcher to fend against the Sanctuary officials on the farm. Valkyrie looks for Skulduggery and finds him, however, Skulduggery is under the impression that Valkyrie is just an hallucination. The Faceless Ones come after Valkyrie and Skulduggery but the portal re-opens and both are pulled out just in time. They are back at Aranmore Farm and realise that China has been shot by a Sanctuary official. She is taken to Kenspeckle to be healed whilst Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Fletcher go to Skulduggery's house. He tells Fletcher he can leave them, so he goes. Skulduggery and Valkyrie return to the Sanctuary to rescue Ghastly and Tanith. All of them are trying to find clues about whom they are up against. They find out that the 'Revenger's Club' is made up of Dreylan Scarab, Billy-Ray Sanguine, Dusk, Vaurien Scapegrace, Remus Crux and Springheeled Jack. Sanguine steals the Soul Catcher from the Necromancer Temple and plans to use it to catch a Remnant from the Midnight Hotel. Valkyrie and Skulduggery figure this out and go to the Midnight Hotel and find Sanguine checking in. Scapegrace arrives with a zombie hoard and Anton Shudder (owner of the Midnight Hotel), Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Sanguine and a couple of other sorcerers battle against the zombies. Sanguine escapes with a Remnant. The Revenger's Club capture Kenspeckle and put the Remnant into him. He then repairs the Desolation Engine (a bomb) and tortures Tanith by nailing her to a chair. Scarab plans to set the bomb of at a football match. At the stadium Valkyrie is bitten by Dusk. They defeat Scarab and Valkyrie saves Guild's family from Sanguine and he says to her that he is not going to kill her because he thinks worse things are to come. Davina Marr blows up the Sanctuary by controlling Myron Stray. Valkyrie realises her true name is Darquesse.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie find out about a powerful assassin named Tesseract, who is on a mission to kill Davina Marr, but are unable to save her from him. Valkyrie must seal her name, so that none can use it against her, by going to a banshee, who promises to organize an appointment with Doctor Nye. On Christmas Day, she visits her mothers side of the family, then her fathers', where her cousins (Carol and Crystal) begin to warm up to her. Later, the Banshee calls and Valkyrie has to leave, and after a near death experience, she finds her name sealed with three intricate symbols carved on her heart. Afterwards, she spills the beans to Skulduggery and tells him she is Darquesse. A remnant gets away from Wreath when he tries to find what will happen to Valkyrie. The remnant finds out that Valkyrie, in fact will become Darquesse, and sets all the Remnants loose to search for Darquesse. When they find and possess her, Valkyrie turns into Darquesse briefly, killing many, but is stopped by Skulduggery. The Giant Soul Catcher is turned on and all but one Remnants are caught; one that bonds with Tanith Low forever. At the end Skulduggery tries to arrest Tesseract but is stopped when a Necromancer in armour attacks Tesseract and talks to Skulduggery,telling him that he will kill Valkyrie and the other Necromancers. The armoured Necromancer is revealed to be Lord Vile. Skulduggery befriends Tesseract in the moments before his death who tells him about how he will miss his cat when he is dead. He also asks Skulduggery if it was Lord Vile's Necromancy that brought him back to life, but Skulduggery does not answer. Tesseract dies facing the sun, killed by Lord Vile as he came back from Death.

Melancholia is strapped onto a table, suffering through her Surge. Cleric Craven, wanting his own disciple instead of Valkyrie Cain to become Death Bringer, has carved symbols into her flesh, which bind the magic of the surge to her, making Melancholia the most powerful Necromancer ever. Melancholia becomes the Death Bringer - the person to dissolve the walls between life and death, expected to start the Passage (a Necromancer ritual in which the Death Bringer is supposed to kill half of the planet's population in an instant, in order to create a loop that makes everybody else still living immortal), change the world, and supposedly save it. Skulduggery Pleasant is revealed to be Lord Vile, which shakes Valkyrie extremely. Skulduggery's revival is also revealed to be an experiment by the High priest of Necromancy in Ireland. Lord Vile is no longer worried about killing Valkyrie, now his new target is the Death Bringer.

But the real villain might not be the Death Bringer; it might not even be Lord Vile. The End Of The World is near; Darquesse is coming...

Mortals are developing strange powers, powers of the gods. Many of them can't control it, and they are become strong, becoming corrupt, becoming even, gods themselves. But they are only pawns, the real antagonist is much, much worse. One of those mortals, a werewolf, says that when he first got his magic, a man spoke to him in a dream. A man called Argeddion. Argeddion, Valkyrie and Skulduggery soon find out, is one of the most powerful men to have ever existed. He once learnt his own name, and he can do a lot more than giving a few mortals some power.

The only problem is that he's missing, and that they might not need Darquesse to destroy the world, because Argeddion is ready, and willing; even if he doesn't know it.

The paperback releases of four of the six novels so far have included an extra short story at the end. Skulduggery Pleasant included The Lost Art of World Domination, Playing with Fire included Gold, Babies And The Brothers Muldoon, The Faceless Ones included The Slightly Ignominious End to The Legend Of Black Annis and Mortal Coil included The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous.

The paperback releases of Dark Days and Death Bringer did not include extra short stories.

In October 2011, Derek Landy posted a Halloween special, a short story featuring Tanith Low and Billy-Ray Sanguine and titled Trick or Treat, on his blog.^[3].

In June 2011 Landy posted on his blog ^[4] that he would be writing a short story about Skulduggery called The End of the World. It was released in late February 2012 to coincide with World Book Day 2012. The Australian release of this novella came with an additional short story titled Just Another Friday Night.

As of October 2010, a series of new covers have been released. The first book's cover is more or less the back cover of the normal cover. The second cover is gold, the third is purple, the fourth is red and the fifth is green. The new mass market paperback edition covers all feature Skulduggery on the front and Valkyrie on the back. The new covers can be viewed at Waterstones.com.^[5]

Skulduggery Pleasant won the Red House Children's Book Award,^[6] the Bolton Children's Book Award^[7] and the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award.^[8] The book was also recommended for confident readers (9+) by the Richard & Judy Children's Book Club in 2007. It also won the Portsmouth Book Awards in 2008, having been selected by school children in Portsmouth, as well as winning Irish book of the decade in 2010.^[9] Also, in 2009, it won the Kernow Youth and Grampian Book Awards by a majority vote. It had also been nominated for Young Reader's Choice Awards 2010 in North America and it won Irish book awards in 2009 and 2010

As the first four novels released, immense popularity and positive reviews have been given to the novels. Many critics praised Derek Landy's way of writing due to his extremely huge gallery of characters. Some critics and their comments are below:

• Phillip Ardagh (The Guardian):

It's exciting, pacy, nicely handled and it's fun. There's nothing worthy about it, and it's all the better for that. And, I might add, it's self-contained. Landy may well revisit these characters – I sincerely hope he does – but it's a pleasingly rounded tale, which is refreshing in these days of endless open-ended books of never-ending series.^[10]

• Nathan Nicholls (Whitby Gazette):

There is no expense spared by Landy in this book and I would have to say that everyone who could be bothered to read it, would definitely be drawn into it and certainly enjoy it. (…) Something for everyone and everything for someone, Skulduggery Pleasant is easily my book of the year so far. Read it!^[11]

• Christina Hardyment (The Independent):

Landy is an established horror writer, and the combats between Skulduggery, Serpine and his legions of Hollow Men and vampires rival the climaxes of the Potter films for hair-raising effects; it isn't often that writing makes you feel as if you are watching a film.^[12]

• The Times:

Derek Landy’s debut, Skulduggery Pleasant (…) has a distinctly Horowitzian humour and verve to it, being a detective story featuring a wizard’s skeleton as hero. When Stephanie’s uncle dies, she discovers his horror stories weren’t fiction, and that evil forces are after her for a mysterious key. Wisecracking madly, the duo must survive each other as well as Hell. At the end of it, readers of 12+ may well be regretting their consumption of chocolate eggs.^[13]

The immense popularity and extremely positive reviews of the first three novels have caught the attention of people worldwide. Warner Bros. also caught the attention and were at one point in talks for film adaptations of the novels. Author Derek Landy has expressed interest and welcomed film adaptations for all of his novels. However, as of late 2010, the movie rights have reverted to him.^[14]

Derek Landy has indicated that his preference for the movie is live action: "the movie will probably not be coming out in 2010... we have a director and are working on the script...but if the movie's made, it will be live action."^[15]

• Official website