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Skulduggery Pleasant

by Derek Landy



      Stephanie Edgley is thoroughly bored with her life. She is twelve years old, an only child. Nothing ever happens to her until the death of her uncle, author Gordon Edgley. He was the one bright spot in her life. He wrote the most interesting books, full of magic and daring adventures. Sadly, he didn't finish his last book. Stephanie doesn't know what she will do for entertainment without Uncle Gordon's stories.

Then comes the shocking reading of Gordon's will. He left his villa to Stephanie's parents, and not much to the other aunt and uncle. They were left only a few trinkets of worthless jewelry, including the ugliest brooch Stephanie had ever seen. His house and manuscripts, he left to Stephanie herself. He also left a bequest to a man named Skulduggery Pleasant, who was someone none of them had heard of or seen. And when Pleasant came to the reading of the will, Stephanie still couldn't tell what he looked like. His lower face was covered with a scarf. His eyes were hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses. A mass of curly, carrot-red hair and a felt hat covered everything else above the collar of his snappy clothes. Gloves and shoes covered the rest.

When Stephanie's life was threatened over a key she knew nothing about, Skulduggery Pleasant came to her rescue. With his entrance into her life, Stephanie's boring existence vanished. Helping this animated skeleton solve her uncle's murder was a lot more interesting than staying home and going to school.

Skulduggery Pleasant is a fantasy of a far different order than any I've ever read. Derek Landy asks a lot of a reader when he asks us to suspend disbelief long enough to accept that a dead sorcerer has reanimated his own bones to stop an evil sorcerer, one who would even stoop to killing a child to gain the power he craved. Yet, it's a feat he pulls off with great success. I look forward to more tales from this author! Read Skuduggery Pleasant and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

The Book

Eos (Harper Collins)
April 2007
Hardcover
978-0-06-123115-5
Children's Fantasy / mystery (age 9-12)
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: Contains violence

The Reviewer

Jo Rogers
Reviewed 2007
NOTE:
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