Completely disregarding my usual sense of order, I read this, the third book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, without reading the first two. And I must say I don’t think I suffered at all for for it!

Skulduggery Pleasant, skeletal detective, and Valkyrie, his 15 year-old assistant and part-time ordinary schoolgirl, are investigating the murders of four teleporters. Skulduggery and Valkryie soon figure out that the Diablerie (a kind of society for Very Evil Bad People) need a teleporter to open a portal allowing The Faceless Ones (think Dementor-style Soul-sucking Ancients) into the world. Throw in a Sea Hag and an Ancient Sceptre and a mole (who could it be?), and you have the ingredients for a cracking read.

The plot is very complicated and quite difficult to describe without giving anything away, but there wasn’t a single boring moment in this whole book! The odds are stacked against Skulduggery and Valkyrie again and again, but they somehow always manage to come through. If you like the action and humour of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series then you will definitely love the Skulduggery Pleasant books, which have a bit of an older and darker feel. There are plot twists galore, heartstopping fight scenes, and some seriously smartarse dialogue. I can’t wait to go back and read the first two books.