“You’re Skulduggery Pleasant,” he said. “I’ve heard about you. The Skeleton Detective.”

Skulduggery Pleasant is back, and reunited with his original head. But all is not well in the magical world – for one thing, foreign powers are conspiring to take over the Irish Sanctuary, and for another thing, Valkyrie has discovered she might be the sorceress set to destroy the world. The problem is, she doesn′t feel she can tell Skulduggery what she′s learned… and that′s how all the trouble starts.
With Valkyrie on a quest of her own, to seal her name and prevent her evil destiny from coming to pass, Skulduggery and the gang are even more vulnerable. Which is a shame, because remember those thousands of remnants, imprisoned in the Midnight Hotel? Well, now they′re out. Not only that but they believe Valkyrie is their messiah. And that means thousands of wicked souls, desperate to get to Valkyrie, willing to kill anyone in their way… Oh, and because they can possess anybody, they could be ANYONE.

Now Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Ghastly and Tanith can trust no one. Not even each other…

This is my first time I’ve read anything from this author. It’s a bit bad I’ve started with the fourth book in the series but I can say I was well impressed by the storyline flow and the dialogue and the characters.

This one was mainly about Remnants, smoke-like beings that take possession of the living and control their actions. The Council meets to discuss who the Death Bringer might be and they decide it’s probably Valkyrie, but they need proof. A single, captured Remnant is taken to a seer to possess and force him to tell the future. As a result, the Remnant learns how critical Valkyrie is to its kind and escapes to tell them the news. *cue havoc*

“To be honest with you there, a Remnant isn’t really much more than intent. It flies around being angry and doesn’t think too much about anything, y’know? It doesn’t have a personality, or a real consciousness to speak of. But when it inhabits a body, that all changes. It’s whole again. I am Finbar Wrong, but I’m also the Remnant inside him. We’re very happy together, as you can see.” He smiled, and the black veins receded and the darkness disappeared from his lips.

The characters bicker all the time and the storyline is very much alive and kicking. I’ll definitely try and find the first three books and see where the story starts from.

About the Author

Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children′s story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. ′I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave, ′ he says, ′or she would be if she were dead.′

 “I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave,” he says, “or she would be if she were dead.” Seasons of War, the 13th novel in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, is available now from HarperCollins Children’s Books.

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