First published in Great Britain by
HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2014
Reissued in this edition in 2017
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
HarperCollins Publishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
The HarperCollins website address is:
Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at:
Derek Landy blogs under duress at
Text copyright © Derek Landy 2014
Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2014
Skulduggery Pleasant logoTM HarperCollinsPublishers
Skulduggery Pleasant © TM Derek Landy
Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com
Cover illustration © Tom Percival
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007489282
Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780007489299
Version: 2019-04-15
This book is dedicated to me.
Derek, without you, I would not be where I am today.
Words cannot convey how much I owe you for the guidance you’ve shown me – for your wisdom, your wit, your keen insight and your keener intelligence, your taste, your strength, your integrity and your humility. I won’t mention the charity work you do, or the political activism you’re involved in, or the ecological work you’ve spearheaded. And it’s not just because you won’t talk about it – it’s because no one else does, either.
You have taught me how to be a better person.
Nay – you have taught us all.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
Contents
Chapter 2: Living in the Shadow
Chapter 3: Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Chapter 5: To Watch the World Burn
Chapter 13: My Friend. My Furniture.
Chapter 16: The National Black Belt Review Board
Chapter 17: A Voice from the Darkness