Kids (and grown-ups!) in search of a great new fantasy series need look no further. Kirkus Reviews summed up Skulduggery Pleasant best: "A high-intensity tale shot through with spectacular magic battles, savage mayhem, cool outfits, monsters, hidden doors, over-the-top names, narrow escapes, evil schemes and behavior heroic, ambiguous and really, really bad. When the murder of a favorite uncle touches off a frantic search for a fabled superweapon known as the Scepter of the Ancients, 12-year-old Stephanie is abruptly pitched out of her mundane life. She hooks up with Skulduggery Pleasant-a walking, wisecracking, nattily dressed, fire-throwing skeleton detective-and similar unlikely allies to fight a genially sadistic sorcerer out to conquer the world and to bring back the bad old gods."