Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer

In 2011 Derek Landy released the sixth edition to the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer.

This one sees the Necromancers finally finding their Death Bringer in the form of Melancholia. But when the detective duo discover what the Passage will entail they are faced with saving the world once again… only this time they only have 7 days to do it in! To top things off Lord Vile is on the loose. And after this one things will never be the same again.

For me this is one of my favourites out of the series because everything starts to fall into place with a terrible crash and boom. If you thought Derek has been dark in the previous books in the series then you haven’t read Death Bringer. Some truly twisted moments are guaranteed throughout and also some dark parts as characters struggle to understand who they are and who they can trust.

And still Derek is able to weave in the humour and wit like a professional. It really defines this series of books for me, even when the storyline or even just a small segment gets dark.

Some particular moments and scenes I enjoyed are Darquesse versus the Jitter Girls; Skulduggery and Valkyrie entering the Temple without permission… the conversation involved is very funny; Skulduggery and Valkyrie versus the Warlock; Melancholia slashing Valkyrie to ribbons… one of those twisted moments in the novel; Tenebrae’s tale of Skulduggery… how he came back from the dead and what happened next (saying no more!); Lord Vile versus the Death Bringer in the Temple; Valkyrie’s naked reflection and Skulduggery seeing it… awkward; the fight against the Necromancers in the retirement home; Valkyrie’s father wanting to hold the baby and the conversation involved… another funny one; Valkyrie being dragged into a small tunnel by rock creatures in the caves beneath Gordon’s house… claustrophobia moment!; and finally the ultimate battle of Lord Vile versus Darquesse!

And my favourite quotes from the novel are:

• ‘I feel we’ve become friends these past few seconds.’
• ‘It was a beige dress that would have looked better on an eighty-year-old. Any eighty-year-old, man or woman.’
• ‘…I haven’t a bull’s notion.’
• ‘I’m all tingly.’   ‘I have that effect.’
• ”I swear, talking to you is like talking to a really good-looking and mildly stupid brick wall.’
• ‘…my sweet agony.’
• ‘…this is just a thought that entered my head, so it’s not my fault, it’s the thought’s fault…’
• ‘It’s not the end of the world, and you’ve got other things to worry about. Like the end of the world.’
• ‘I kill a sofa for you and you go and sit in a chair? I don’t think you appreciate the sacrifice that has been made for you.’
• ‘ I cross the place where my heart used to be and hope to be even more deader than I am now.’
• ‘Weirder things have happened, I suppose. Like Belgium.’
• ‘He stood there, the black robe flowing around him, his skull barely visible beneath the hood.  “Good God. You look like the Grim Reaper.”‘
• ‘…a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a cardigan.’
• ‘I’m often nice, but rarely really.’
• ‘I did confront my inner demon. I punched him in the face and he exploded.’
• ‘Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.’
• ‘…sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and then sometimes you’ve just got to run like hell after it’s done.’
• ‘He is begging for a box, isn’t he?’
• ‘…all the co-ordination of a turnip.’
• ‘You can call me whatever you want.’   ‘Thank you Gladys.’
• ‘We do what we… we don’t do what we don’t.’

I loved how twisted this one was, and loved the scandal involved. Derek’s writing is, as ever, fast-paced and breath-taking. Hold on to your seats ’cause things certainly won’t be the same again after this one!

An 8.8 out of 10.