Skulduggery is now back for round three
Saturday April 04 2009
Once a cabbage farmer in Lusk, north Dublin, Derek Landy shot to the public's attention three years ago when he signed a seven-figure book deal with HarperCollins for a series of fantasy adventure books featuring a wise-cracking dead detective/magician called Skulduggery Pleasant and his assistant Stephanie. Stephanie is a 12-year-old Dublin girl, who is the only one who can see him.
Since then, a film deal has been secured, Derek has become a world-wide hit and winner of last year's Red House Children's Book Award which is judged only by children.
The Faceless Ones, the third book in this series, opens when Valkyrie Cain, otherwise known as Stephanie (now 13) finds a man face down on the floor, a stab wound in his back. And it's non-stop action from the first page on.
Valkyrie teams up with Skulduggery to save the world from the Faceless Ones, evil ancients who can re-enter the world through a special "gateway".
Full of brilliantly named and larger than life characters -- from Solomon Wreath to Ghastly Bespoke and Finbar Wrong -- the reader is caught up in the excitement and drama of every scene.
Landy's dialogue crackles with authenticity and wit. Wrong, with his Stiff Little Fingers T-shirt and tattooed arms, is a tour de force of comic writing. If you want to keep your youngster reading, look no further. It's Landy to the rescue again.
- Sarah Webb
