When the evil Baron Vengeous escapes from prison, Detective Skulduggery Pleasant and his apprentice, Valkyrie Cain, have just two days to recapture him or the Baron's creature, the Grotesquery, may summon the Faceless Ones back to their world.
Stephanie, bequeathed a mansion by her uncle that comes complete with a supernatural skeleton detective, finds herself acquiring magical powers and embarking on a quest to keep the powerful Scepter of the Ancients from falling into the hands of the evil Faceless Ones--while keeping everything a secret from her parents.
War has finally come. Not between good and evil, but between Sanctuaries, and if Skulduggery and Valkyrie are to stop it they must team up with the rest of the Dead Men. And at the same time, another war rages within Valkyrie herself, as Darquesse is on the verge of rising ...
The Necromancers no longer need Valkyrie to be their Death Bringer, and that's a good thing. The catch? They don't need her any more because they've found their Death Bringer already, the person who will dissolve the doors between life and death. And that's a very, very bad thing ...
When twelve-year-old Stephanie inherits her weird uncle's estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton mage, to save the world from the Faceless Ones.
