First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2008
First published in this edition in the United States of America by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
HarperCollins Publishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk
Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com
Text copyright © Derek Landy 2008
Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2008
Skulduggery Pleasant logo™ HarperCollins Publishers
Skulduggery Pleasant™ © Derek Landy
Cover illustration © Neil Swaab 2018
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 ebook 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 ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780008248796
Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780008266325
Version: 2018-04-27
This book is dedicated to my family – because otherwise I’d never hear the end of it …
Nadine: warm, kind and considerate. I am all of these things.
Audrey: the greatest thrill of your life is probably the fact that I’m your brother.
Ivan: meaningless words such as “brilliant”, “amazing” and “inspirational” have been used to describe me, but not nearly enough.
If any of you thought that there’d be anything sincere or heartfelt in your dedications, allow me a moment to quietly laugh at you …
Because the heartfelt sincerity is reserved for my nana.
Chic, this book is also dedicated to you, for all the love and support you’ve shown me over the years. I love you much more than any of your other grandchildren do, I swear.
Contents
Chapter 2: Killer On The Loose
Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast
Chapter 5: The Terror Of London
Chapter 6: Fireballs In The Park
Chapter 10: The Armour Of Lord Vile
Chapter 11: The Terrifying Brain-Sucker Of London
Chapter 23: Elephants And Bunnies
Chapter 25: A Smattering Of Slaughtering