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"The balance between humour and danger is well handled in Derek Landy's fun, fast-paced fantasy, Skulduggery Pleasant"
The Guardian, Skulduggery Pleasant
Skulduggery Pleasant
Skulduggery Pleasant
Author Derek Landy
Cover Artist Tom Percival
Date Published 2007
Date Set In June 2007
Publisher HarperCollins
No. of pages 368
ISBN 0-00-724161-5 (Original)

0-00-724162-0 (Paperback)

Publication Order
Preceded by
Skulduggery Pleasant: Hell Breaks Loose
Followed by
Playing With Fire

Skulduggery Pleasant (re-titled Skulduggery Pleasant: Sceptre Of The Ancients in the 2009 paperback in the US and Canada) is the first book in the nine-book series. It was published in 2007 by HarperCollins and it is written by Derek Landy. It is about a young girl named Stephanie Edgley and a long-dead mage named Skulduggery Pleasant as they try to stop an evil Adept named Nefarian Serpine from getting his hands on the Sceptre of the Ancients and bringing back the Faceless Ones.

Plot[]

Chapter 1: Stephanie[]

Stephanie Edgley’s uncle Gordon, a horror writer, dies. At his funeral she notices a strange man in a tan overcoat, a hat, a frizzy wig, sunglasses and a scarf. Afterwards, everyone goes to Gordon’s house, Grimwood House. Stephanie enters Gordon’s study and briefly encounters the man again.

Chapter 2: The Will[]

A few days later, Stephanie and her parents, Desmond and Melissa are summoned to the reading of Gordon’s will. Also present at the reading are her aunt and uncle, called Beryl and Fergus, and the strange man again, named Skulduggery Pleasant. Fergus and Beryl are given Gordon’s car and boat as well as a brooch. Skulduggery receives some advice: that often the greatest enemy we face is ourselves, and a cryptic warning of darkness on the horizon, and that the key to safe harbour was in plain sight. Desmond inherits Gordon’s villa in France, and the will states that Stephanie is to inherit Gordon’s house, possessions and royalties on her eighteenth birthday, which causes an uproar from Fergus and Beryl.

Chapter 3: Little Girl, All Alone[]

Stephanie and Melissa drive over to Grimwood House. When they go to leave they find that their car has broken down. Melissa calls a mechanic, who comes and states they will have to take the car back to their garage for repairs. Melissa rides with mechanic and Stephanie, not wanting to ride sitting on her mother’s lap, decides to stay the night on her own. During the night she answers a call to the house phone from a man who asks her her name and demands to know why she is in the house. Stephanie doesn’t answer his questions and hangs up. The man then begins banging on the front door, and then breaks in through the window. He deamnds she hands over a “key.” At that point Skulduggery breaks down the front door and hurls fire at the man, who is impervious to it, so Skulduggery shoots him and he flees. Skulduggery’s disguise has fallen off, revealing that he is a skeleton.

Chapter 4: The Secret War[]

Stephanie faints, and when she returns to consciousness Skulduggery makes her tea and tells her about magic, a secret war against an evil sorcerer called Mevolent, and how near the end of the war Mevolent put out a hit on Skulduggery and others, resulting in many of their deaths, but Skulduggery came back to life. Skulduggery goes to leave on his own, and when Stephanie asks to comes with, he states the last person who joined him on an adventure, his partner, died horribly on their first case, but Stephanie holds his hat hostage, demanding he take her with him. He relents.

Chapter 5: Meeting China Sorrows[]

They take Skulduggery’s Bentley to China Sorrow’ library. Skulduggery tells Stephanie about Elemental magic, showing off the magical uses of air, fire and water, and stating that he hopes she never sees someone use earth magic. Skulduggery tells Stephanie not to tell China her name, and when China asks she stays silent and Skulduggery asks if she’s heard any recent rumours about Serpine. China states Serpine has been asking around about the Sceptre of the Ancients, which both China and Skulduggery dismiss as foolishness. When asked if Gordon has anything worth stealing, China says she does not know, but points out that whatever it is, it took Gordon dying before someone tried. When they leave, Skulduggery tells Stephanie about sorceror’s three names, and how Given and True names can be used to control people, and how Taken names can be used to protect Given Names. Stephanie asks about Serpine and the Sceptre of the Ancients. Skulduggery tells her about Serpine, how he was one of Mevolent's top generals, and his deadly red right hand. He then recounts to her the tale of the Sceptre's creation by the Ancients, the first sorcerors, and its use to kill the Faceless Ones and later most of the Ancients, though he dismisses the story as merely a myth. While drives a car rams into the Bentley.

Chapter 6: A Man Apart[]

The man who had attacked Stephanie earlier pulls her out of the Bentley. She struggles and breaks free. Skulduggery, trapped inside the Bentley, yells at her to runs so she bolts off down an alley. Just as the man catches up to her, Stephanie throws herself into the River Liffey taking the man in with her. The water tears the man apart, and Stephanie swims away and returns to the Bentley where she meets a now free Skulduggery, who states that the man used Adept magic to make himself immune to fire but very weak to water. When she complains about returning back to normality after tonight, Skulduggery suggests she tag along with him tomorrow, stating she has an eye for this line of work. He drops her back off at Grimwood House, where Melissa picks her up in the fixed car thirty minutes later.

Chapter 7: Serpine[]

Mr. Bliss visits Serpine in his castle on behalf of the Elders. Mr. Bliss state that two Sanctuary agents who had been monitoring Serpine, Clement Gale and Alexander Slake, turned up dead yesterday, their bodies unscathed. Serpine fakes shock at this fact. Mr. Bliss warns Serpine that he may not like what lies at the end of the road he has chosen, before leaving to catch a plane to London for a meeting.

Chapter 8: Ghastly[]

As soon as Stephanie is home she goes to bed, and walks up at a little past two in the evening. She thinks about it and realises that Gordon was murdered. She walks around Haggard, and when she spots the Bentley, she goes and confronts Skulduggery about not telling her Gordon was murdered. He states he did it to protect her and promises to no longer withhold information from her.

Skuluggery takes Stephanie to visit Ghastly Besoke, his friend and tailor, in what appears to be a rundown neighbourhood, as his family has a large collection of art and books about the Ancients that may prove to be useful. Ghastly begins making notes to make an outfit for Stephanie that will keep her safe. Skulduggery tells him they need his help, and Stephanie says they think Serpine is after the Sceptre. Ghastly says that that is foolish, as the Sceptre doesn’t exist, and that she doesn’t know enough about this world to understand that. He chastises her for seemingly enjoying this when she is in danger and not taking things seriously. They start arguing and Stephanie storms out. Skulduggery follows a few moments later, stating that Ghastly called him irresponsible and won’t give them access to his family’s collection. So they decide to break into the collection, which is located in the Vault under the Dublin Municipal Art Gallery.

They stake out the Dublin Municipal Art Gallery, and see that they have two vampires on the night shift as protection.

Chapter 9: The Troll Beneath Westminster Bridge[]

Skulduggery drops Stephanie back home.

A woman named Tanith Low is at Westminster Bridge. She meets a troll, the only troll in London, according to him, and they play a game. The troll states that Tanith has three goes to guess his name. If she fails he eats her, and if she wins she gets to live. Tanith fails, and immediately attacks the troll, cutting off his head with her sword. Mr. Bliss shows up, and tells her that Serpine is about to break the truce, and that he needs her help to prevent war breaking out again. She agrees to help and he tells her to go to Ireland.

Chapter 10: The Gal in Black[]

Stephanie is awoken when Desmond breaks the stereo and it is stuck playing Ride of the Valkyries at full volume. Skulduggery appears at her bedroom window, and makes her draw a symbol on her wardrobe’s mirror. He makes an incantation, and when Stephanie touches the mirror her reflection comes to life and steps out. Skulduggery explains that the reflection will be her stand-in at home and school while she is with him, and that when she returns she will gain all the reflection’s memories and experiences. They leave and get in Skulduggery’s replacement car while the Bentley is being fixed, a yellow car Stephanie calls ugly and nicknames the Canary Car. Skulduggery explains that the Elders want to see him as they are saying he is dragging Stephanie, an innocent mortal, into trouble.

Skulduggery pulls into a fast-food place and reveals that Ghastly finished making Stephanie’s protective clothing, and gives it to her to try on in the bathrooms. They then head to the Waxworks Museum, which the Irish Sanctuary is hidden under, and where she sees Cleavers for the first time. The Administrator shows them the Book of Names in the Repository, which contains the Given, Taken and True names of every person. The Book cannot be destroyed so the Elders combined their powers to protect it. Called the Will of the Elders, this spell makes someone want the Book less the closer they are to it. They are then taken to meet the Elders: Eachan Meritorious, Morwenna Crow and Sagacoius Tome, who try to deter Stephanie from involving herself in the world of magic, and asks Skulduggery about his recent claims of threats to the truce. When they learn he believes Serpine is after the Sceptre, they dismiss it as nonsense and leave. Outside the Waxworks Museum Skulduggery and Stephanie meet Mr. Bliss, who tells them he knows Serpine is after the Sceptre and that the Elders underestimate Serpine too much to act against him.

Chapter 11: The Little Bit Of Crime[]

Skulduggery and Stephanie arrive at the Dublin Municipal Art Gallery in the Canary Car shortly before nightfall. They both climb a tree beside the building and Skulduggery jumps and uses air to land himself on the roof. He opens the skylight, which he had deactivated the alarm on before he collected Stephanie that morning. He explains that the floor inside is pressure sensitive. He attaches a harness to himself and attaches a wire to that harness, which he ties around the ventilation duct. He enters through the open skylight, using a remote to lower the wire. Stephanie sits on the tree watching, when she notices the wire starting to slip. She manages to leap from the tree to the rooftop and ties extra wire to the wire and loops that around another skylight before the original wire snaps. She uses a second remote to raise Skulduggery, who is inches above the floor, and he successfully deactivates the alarms. Stephanie then straps herself in and lowers herself down. Skulduggery begins to pick the lock on a door and Stephanie watches one of the security guars transform into a vampire. The head through the door into the Vault and arrive at another door with a crest with a shield and a bear on it. Skulduggery raises boths hands to the door and after a minute it opens.

Chapter 12: Vampires[]

Skulduggery and Stephanie enter the room full of books and art about the Ancients. When Stephanie asks Skulduggery about the shield-and-bear crest, Skulduggery explains they are a family crest, and claims that he abandoned his own one. Skulduggery finds a puzzle box and Stephanie finds a painting of a man reaching out to the Sceptre, shielding his eye with one hand from the glow, but his eyes are noticeably wide open, and the angle of the shadows in the painting make the time both morning, noon and evening. The painting and the box share a crest of a leopard and crossed swords. Skulduggery explains that the painting shows a man reaching for the Sceptre, seeing everything at both the past and present. He then works his fingers over the box and manages to open it. Inside is an Echo Stone containing the memories of a man named Oisin, who was an expert on the Ancients. Oisin kept getting distracted during their talk, but before his Echo Stone dies, he tells them that the black crystal in the Sceptre may possible be able to be destroyed from within, and that the crystal rang whenever the Faceless Ones’ enemies were near, except for the Ancients. When told the Sceptre has been unnearthed, Oisin claims a wise man would return it to where it had been or somewhere similar. This leads Skulduggery to believe the Sceptre is located in a network of caves beneath Gordon’s house. As they try to leave the Art Gallery, they run into the vampires. Skulduggery tries to distract them, but one follows Stephanie up through the skylight onto the roof. When the second bursts up through another skylight, Stephanie leaps to a nearby tree and falls to the ground. As the vampires close in a her, Skulduggery breaks out through a window, setting if the alarm, immobilses the vampires and they run for the Canary Car.

Chapter 13: The Red Right Hand[]

Skulduggery and Stephanie drive to Gordon‘s house to find the entrance to these caves. They find that it requires a key to open, and as they leave, Serpine arrives with four Hollow Men. Serpine incapacitates Skulduggery and sends a Hollow Man after Stephanie. She defeats the Hollow Man by throwing them out of a window, but by then Serpine has left. Stephanie calls China, and tells her that Skulduggery has been taken.

Chapter 14: Elemental Magic[]

China sends a car to Gordon’s house that picks up Stephanie and brings her to China’s apartment. There, Stephanie tells China what happened. China leaves with her assistant, saying she will return later. Stephanie looks around the apartment before going across the hallway to China’s library. She meets Tanith Low, who directs her on where she can find books on learning magic for beginners. She finds a book called Elemental Magic and starts to read it.

After reading for a while, Stephanie repeatedly tries to move her mobile phone with air to no effect. Tanith sees her and tells her to try something smaller, like the page of a book, and tells Stephanie it takes time when she tries and fails. Tanith gives her a yellow rock and says if she puts that in her next bath, it will heal her bruises. Stephanie sees China’s assistant return and rushes back to the apartment.

In her apartment, China tells Stephanie she sent word to the Elders. When Stephanie tells her they don’t have much time to rescue Skulduggery, China tells her that she does not want to risk another war before she is ready for it. China tells Stephanie that it was Serpine who killed Skulduggery, with his red right hand, and that Skulduggery has waited a long time for a reason to get his revenge. China uses Stephanie’s Given Name against her, stating that Gordon had mentioned her to China, and tells Stephanie to not tell anyone about Skulduggery’s abduction.

Chapter 15: The Torture Room[]

In his castle, Serpine descends down, arriving at a door to a room where Skulduggery is bound, tied to a chair. Serpine talks to him about how the Elders are too nervous to come for him yet, and asks Skulduggery where the key is. When Skulduggery feigns ignorance, Serpine shows him a new torture method he has picked up since killing Skulduggery. He makes the wood in a chair in the room expand and contract until it splinters, and then begins to do that to Skulduggery.

Chapter 16: What’s In A Name?[]

Stephanie uses a piece of the rock Tanith gave her to heal her elbow in a sink in China’s library’s restroom. She chastises herself for going to China instead of Ghastly of the Elders. She thinks back to what Skulduggery said about her raising Cain, and decides on her Taken Name. She goes to China’s apartment, breaking down the door when no one answers, and find’s the address of Bespoke Tailors in an address book. China comes in and commands her to stay in the apartment when she realises Stephanie is intent on saving Skulduggery. However, Stephanie tells her that she has picked a name for herself: Valkyrie Cain. China lets her leave, stating she believes she might have a chance at succeeding.

Valkyrie visits Bespoke Tailors. She tells Ghastly about Skulduggery’s abduction. He believes her and they drive to the Waxworks Museum to see the Elders. The Administrator insists they need an appointment to see them, and one of the Cleavers blocks Valkyrie when she tries to barge past. Ghastly argues and covinces the Administrator to see if Meritorious would like to see them. Meritorious appears a while later. He is doubtful of Valkyrie’s claims, and says that if she is wrong, moving against Serpine could mean war. Valkyrie states the war has already begun.

A while later, Valkyrie tries to uses air to move a paperclip but fails. Ghastly appears, saying they’re ready to go. Meritorious needs time to convince Morwenna and Tome that Serpine has broken the Truce, and so is only sending two Cleavers with them so as not to arrouse suspicion. Ghastly tells her that Mr. Bliss has offered to help, sending someone to aid them. Meritorious leads them out if the Museum to a van where the two Cleavers and Tanith Low, sent by Mr. Bliss, are waiting. They get in the van.

Chapter 17: A Fabulous Rescue Indeed[]

The Cleavers and Ghasty leap a fence, landing the woodland surrounding Serpine’s castle. Tanith boosts Valkyrie over before following her herself. They approach the castle, and Tanith sends the two Cleavers to distract the mass of Hollow Men outside so they can get in, which Ghastly admonishes her for, stating she’s sent them to their death. Tanith unlocks the door to the castle with her magic and they enter. They go to the basement, where they split up to check the various rooms. Ghastly and Valkyrie meet up again and find Skulduggery, shackled to a chair in one room. Ghastly unshackles him, and he states he knows where the key is. They leave, running into a swarm of Hollow Men. Skulduggery and Ghastly make a wall of fire to slow them and they jump out a window and run back to the van, passing one of the Cleavers, now dead.

Chapter 18: On The Roof, At Night[]

Skulduggery and Valkyrie are standing on the roof of Bespoke Tailors that night. Skulduggery tells Valkyrie that he expected to China to act as she did when he was abducted, and when Stephanie mentions China saying Serpine killed Skulduggery, he elaborates, saying that Serpine killed Skulduggery’s wife and child before his eyes, and when, in a rage, he reached for a dagger, he never suspected Serpine had coated it in poison. He then reminds Valkyrie of the advice Gordon gave him in his will: that sometimes the key to safe harbour was in plain sight, and explains that he believes the brooch given to Fergus and Beryl to be the key to the caves.

Chapter 19: The Experiment[]

Having abandoned his castle, Serpine is in an empty warehouse where he is keeping one of the Cleavers involved in Skulduggery’s rescue captive. Using some form of Necromancy, Serpine kills the Cleaver and after a while it comes back to life.

Chapter 20: The Family Curse[]

Valkyrie returns home. Her reflection gets in the mirror, she taps the glass and all the reflection’s memories from that day are passed to her.

The following morning, Valkyrie heads over to Fergus and Beryl’s house. Their daughter, Crystal, answers the door and accuses Valkyrie of getting close to Gordon so that she would get his inheritance. Beryl appears and says that Gordon’s brooch is ugly and doesn’t go with anything else she has. She then mentions that she say Valkyrie drive away with Skulduggery Pleasant yesterday. Valkyrie says they must have been mistaken and asks to use their bathroom, and, when in the house, sneaks into Fergus and Beryl’s bedroom and steals the brooch.

Valkyrie sits on a rock on the beach in Haggard. She manages to use air to move a shell. Desmond approaches her, and tells her that him and Melissa are worried about her, that she has been acting differently since Gordon died. He says Beryl called and told him about Valkyrie’s visit to her, and that she had seen her with Skulduggery. He tells her that her great-grandafther used to tell them stories about magic, say that they were descended from a sorcerer called the Last of the Ancients, and that because of those stories Gordon began meeting with people Desmond considered dangerous. Desmond asks her to be careful, and too focus on the real world and not silly fantasies.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery meet Mr. Bliss, who has agreed to help them get the Sceptre from the caves, at a Martello tower on the cliffs of Haggard. They show him the brooch, and he pushes Skulduggery off the cliff.

Chapter 21: The Caves[]

Mr. Bliss takes the brooch from Valkyrie and leaves. Valkyrie races to the base of the cliff, where she sees Skulduggery walking back to the shore along the water. They realise that Serpine has been waiting for them to get the key so Mr. Bliss could take it from them.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery arrive at Gordon’s house finding another car parked outside. They find that the entrance to the caves has been openned and head in. Skulduggery reads disturbances in the air to find which way whoever opened the door went, and they head in the opposite direction, hoping to find the Sceptre first. They find a chocolate bar wrapper, which they believe to be evidence that Gordon had been this way. They get attacked by a monster, a dog-like creature. The creature rips off Skulduggery’s leg and Valkyrie is forced to leap onto a vine to escape it. Skulduggery pushes the monster into a chasm, and Valkyrie realises the vine is pulling her up. She tries to jump off but it wraps itself around her wrist and pulls her up rapidly.

Chapter 22: The Sceptre of the Ancients[]

The tentacle pulls her over a ledge and Valkyrie realises she is being dragged towards a gaping mouth. Realising the creature has no eyes, she goes limps and throws a stone at another tentacle, tricking it into directing it attention elsewhere, and manages to escape. She runs for a bit and then sees Serpine standing before a wooden chest. He breaks the lock on it and takes out the Sceptre of the Ancients. She slowly creeps closer and the Sceptre starts to ring as Skulduggery shows up and fights Serpine. Valkyrie rams into Serpine to stop him killing Skulduggery with the Sceptre. They are forced to flee, chased by Serpine and his Hollow Men. When they are outside Gordon’s house, Tanith helps fight off the Hollow Men. Serpine destroys the Canary Car using the Sceptre. A car pulls up, with China and her assistant in the front seat, and Tanith, Valkyrie and Skulduggery jump in as the car speeds away.










They try to locate Serpine, but discover he has already obtained the Scepter and has left the caves. When revealed, Serpine tries to kill Stephanie and Skulduggery using the Scepter, but they escape. As they leave, Serpine performs on a captured Cleaver. He runs a test which kills the Cleaver, finding the experiment causes him to resurrect. The resurrected Cleaver is addressed as the White Cleaver.

Ghastly, Tanith, Skulduggery and Stephanie head to a warehouse to gain information about the Scepter, only to find that the White Cleaver has found them and is now under instructions from Serpine. The White Cleaver attacks the goup. Forced to retreat after discovering the powerful White Cleaver can't die, Ghastly uses the Earthly Elemental ability to turn himself into a statue to avoid being killed by the White Cleaver. Sagacious Tome, one of the Elders, reveals himself a traitor, and allows the two other Elders, Eachan Meritorious and Morwenna Crow, to be murdered by Serpine. He then invades the Sanctuary and enters the Repository. Serpine's original plan was to use the Book of Names to control the World into submission, not to have the Scepter, but he had not realized that all three Elders' consent was needed to read from it. In a fit of rage, Serpine murders Tome to obtain the book even after Tome betrayed the other Elders.

Now working as a detective and with Stephanie's help, Skulduggery, Tanith and Stephanie raid the Sanctuary. They kill some Hollow Men, but again run into the White Cleaver. Tanith tells Skulduggery and Stephanie to stop Serpine while she buys time. She only partially succeeds for a few minutes, but then the White Cleaver gainsthe upper-hand and nearly kills her, Tanith defends herself in time to avoid being killed. Stephanie and Skulduggery then attack Serpine, and Skulduggery is pulled into the wall and Stephanie is left with a broken leg, but soon looks at the Book of Names and only briefly sees her True Name, although can't remember it clearly. Mr. Bliss then goes to Serpine, and Serpine tells him to kill Stephanie to prove himself and earn credit, but Mr. Bliss betrays him and tries to kill him using his own dagger, revealing his triple-cross, as he never was with Serpine at all. When Serpine avoids the killing blow, Bliss tries to stop him, but his red right hand incapacitates him. Skulduggery soon enters back in through the ceiling and continues fighting Serpine. When Serpine tries to destroy Skulduggery with the Scepter, Skulduggery holds the Book of Names above his face and the Book of Names being destroyed instead with the Scepter in the process. Angered at his loss, and that even the White Cleaver has mysteriously abandoned him, Serpine tortures Stephanie with his Red Hand, but Skulduggery destroys him with the Scepter, breaking the Scepter's power in the process. At the conclusion of the novel, Skulduggery offers to take Stephanie on as his assistant and apprentice in sorcery; Stephanie has discovered through the course of the novel's events that her family are descendants of the Ancients and she herself has magic abilities.

Throughout the plot, Stephanie is told multiple times that she must choose a name should she wish to remain in the magical community for several reasons. At the near end of the book, Stephanie Edgely chooses to leave behind her old self and takes the name of Valkyrie Cain.

This information was taken from Wikipedia

Chapter list[]

Characters[]

For a full list, see List of Skulduggery Pleasant characters.

Awards[]

Skulduggery Pleasant won the Red House Children's Book Award, the Bolton Children's Book Award and the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award. 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. Also, in 2009 , it won the Kernow Youth and Grampian Book Awards by a majority vote. In 2010, Skulduggery Pleasant was awarded the title of Irish Book Of The Decade, after being up against some of the worlds best sellers.

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