No bones about it: Derek Landy’s skeleton detective is back is SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT: PLAYING WITH FIRE, a whimsical young-adult fantasy sequel to last year’s eponymous adventure.
As the book opens, Skulduggery and his elementally powered teenage charge Valkyrie Cain have just defeated one Vaurien Scapegrace, preventing him from reaching his artistic goal of becoming the globe’s “greatest killer.” But then a bigger challenge presents itself … or himself: Baron Vengeous, who, according to Skulduggery, “goes to 11″ on the “Evil Villain Scale.”
The Baron seeks to resurrect one of the Faceless Ones from the dead — specifically, the one called Grotesquery, a Frankenstein-ian mishmash of limbs and parts. All he needs is the fabled armor of one Lord Vile, and with the help of his vampire sidekick Dusk, he aims to succeed.
Yet Skulduggery, Valkyrie and their fireball-flinging skills also have to contend with the likes of the creature Springheeled Jack, who terrorizes London at night, and the straight razor-wielding Billy-Ray Sanguine, an infected hitman. Our do-gooders’ hideouts include an abandoned waxworks museum and a movie theater converted into a magic-science facility.
I need not tell you that the SKULDUGGERY franchise resembles a more spirited version of Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES with the droll, dry humor of Lemony Snicket’s A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, with a more mannered British bent. Because it’s aimed at kids, it’s more interested in fun than fright, yet adults will warm to it easily, and perhaps turn its pages even faster. It’s a real winner. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- What Fire Cannot Burn
- Wild Fire
- The Museum of Horrors
- Winterbirth
- Forecast: DEEP STORM moving in for Child
