Death Bringer

Death Bringer
Derek Landy

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior.Oh yes. And dead.The Necromancers no longer need Valkyrie to be their Death Bringer, and that’s a Good Thing.There’s just one catch. There’s a reason the Necromancers don’t need her any more. And that’s 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…

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2011

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

The HarperCollins website address is:

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at:

www.skulduggerypleasant.com (http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com)

Derek Landy blogs under duress at

www.dereklandy.blogspot.com (http://www.dereklandy.blogspot.com)

Text copyright © Derek Landy 2011

Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2011

Skulduggery Pleasant logo

HarperCollins Publishers

Skulduggery Pleasant ©

Derek Landy

Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com (http://blacksheep-uk.com)

Cover illustration © Neil Swabb

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: 9780008266387

Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780008266394

Version: 2018-07-25

This book is dedicated to my nieces.

Girls, none of you were born when Skulduggery Pleasant first appeared. But since you’ve arrived, no one in our family wants to talk about the writer any more. Now all they want to talk about are the damn babies. All of a sudden, no one wants to cuddle me, and for that I blame you.

But I suppose you have your good points. It’s because of you that Valkyrie has a little sister, after all. You’re all mildly cute, reasonably adorable, and you make me laugh when you fall over.

So this book is dedicated to you, Rebecca and Emily, Sophie and Clara and

(insert names of any more nieces or nephews that might sprout up between now and when they’re old enough to read this).

I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am your favourite uncle. And you probably prefer me to your parents, too.

(I’ve met your parents. I don’t blame you. They’re rubbish.)

Contents

Cover (#u68a29291-0cc3-5f1d-83cd-1225930cb0aa)

Title Page (#u1e3d245d-c9af-5430-9ef2-ac9cd3da5c39)

Copyright (#u40b4563f-02c0-5d4c-a934-96f6f75ce303)

Dedication (#u8ce4aa65-7092-5273-b749-df9e0d44c84e)

Prologue (#u7e2c6f23-77b4-5660-894e-76fdd458db38)

Chapter 1: Kenny (#u1234f083-0840-56d4-b7a8-924b65d863e5)

Chapter 2: Me and the Girl (#u2f959f02-106d-565f-8d58-7426a5efe439)

Chapter 3: The Christening (#uff4a843c-1351-566f-b558-64930e034cfa)

Chapter 4: Craven (#ua54f26f4-7349-517f-93da-8d8b4c001840)

Chapter 5: The Jitter Girls (#u882f7107-392b-59b1-a135-e66c664c0210)

Chapter 6: China’s Secret (#u46e4fabc-42ca-52c8-a81d-c68bd4b86966)

Chapter 7: The Death Bringer (#u8fa16878-07e4-512d-8611-ba632cf8e74f)

Chapter 8: Friends in High Places (#u9d202ee0-b853-5730-a277-28da09b0d258)