Skulduggery Pleasant
She’s twelve. He’s dead. But together they’re going to save the world. Hopefully.The iconic first book in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series.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, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead sorcerer…
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Childrenâs Books in 2007
First published in this edition in the United States of America by HarperCollins Childrenâs Books in 2018
HarperCollins Childrenâs Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
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Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.com
Copyright © Derek Landy 2007
Cover illustration © Neil Swaab 2018
Skulduggery Pleasant⢠Derek Landy; Skulduggery Pleasant logo⢠HarperCollins Publishers
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008248789
Ebook Edition © JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780008266318
Version: 2018-04-27
This book is dedicated to my parents, John and Barbara.
Dad â this is for your bizarrely unwavering support and unflinching faith.
Barbs â this is for that look on your face when I told you the good news.
I owe you absolutely everything and, yâknow, I suppose itâs entirely possible that I feel some, like, degree of affection towards the two of youâ¦
Contents
CoverTitle PageCopyrightDedicationChapter One: StephanieChapter Two: The WillChapter Three: Little Girl, All AloneChapter Four: The Secret WarChapter Five: Meeting China SorrowsChapter Six: A Man ApartChapter Seven: SerpineChapter Eight: GhastlyChapter Nine: The Troll Beneath Westminster BridgeChapter Ten: The Gal In BlackChapter Eleven: The Little Bit Of CrimeChapter Twelve: VampiresChapter Thirteen: The Red Right HandChapter Fourteen: Elemental MagicChapter Fifteen: The Torture RoomChapter Sixteen: Whatâs In A Name?Chapter Seventeen: A Fabulous Rescue IndeedChapter Eighteen: On The Roof, At NightChapter Nineteen: The ExperimentChapter Twenty: The Family CurseChapter Twenty One: The CaveChapter Twenty Two: The Sceptre Of The AncientsChapter Twenty Three: Thoughts On Dying HorriblyChapter Twenty Four: Planning For MurderChapter Twenty Five: The White CleaverChapter Twenty Six: The Last Stand Ofâ¦Chapter Twenty Seven: No Calm Before The StormChapter Twenty Eight: CarnageChapter Twenty Nine: Deep In Dublin, DeathChapter Thirty: An End, A BeginningKeep ReadingAbout the AuthorThe Skulduggery Pleasant seriesAbout the Publisher
STEPHANIE
The funeral was attended by family and acquaintances but not many friends. Gordon hadnât been a well-liked figure in the publishing world, for although the books he wrote â tales of horror and magic and wonder â regularly reared their heads in the bestseller lists, he had the disquieting habit of insulting people without realising it, then laughing at their shock. It was at Gordonâs funeral, however, that Stephanie Edgley first caught sight of the gentleman in the tan overcoat.
He was standing under the shade of a large tree, away from the crowd, the coat buttoned up all the way despite the warmth of the afternoon. A scarf was wrapped around the lower half of his face and even from her position on the far side of the grave, Stephanie could make out the wild and frizzy hair that escaped from the wide brimmed hat he wore low over his gigantic sunglasses. She watched him, intrigued by his appearance. And then, like he knew he was being observed, he turned and walked back through the rows of headstones, and disappeared from sight.
After the service, Stephanie and her parents travelled back to her dead uncleâs house, over a humpbacked bridge and along a narrow road that carved its way through thick woodland. The gates were heavy and grand and stood open, welcoming them into the estate. The grounds were vast and the old house itself was ridiculously big.
There was an extra door in the living room, a door disguised as a bookcase, and when she was younger Stephanie liked to think that no one else knew about this door, not even Gordon himself. It was a secret passageway, like in the stories sheâd read, and sheâd make up adventures about haunted houses and smuggled treasure. This secret passageway would always be her escape route, and the imaginary villains in these adventures would be dumbfounded by her sudden and mysterious disappearance. But now this door, this secret passageway, stood open, and there was a steady stream of people through it, and she was saddened that this little piece of magic had been taken from her.
