Playing With Fire

Playing With Fire
Derek Landy

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior.Oh yes. And dead.With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more.At least, that’s what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland.With Baron Vengeous after the deadly armour of Lord Vile, and pretty much everyone out to kill Valkyrie, the daring detective duo face their biggest challenge yet. But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home…?

Copyright (#ulink_89a05bd4-b15f-5755-b9cd-5c8768373210)

HarperCollins Children’s Books

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London SE1 9GF

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

Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk (http://www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk)

Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com (http://www.dereklandy.blogspot.com)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2007

Text copyright © Derek Landy 2008

Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2008

Skulduggery Pleasant logo

HarperCollins Publishers

Skulduggery Pleasant

© Derek Landy

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

Cover illustration © Tom Percival

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: 9780007257058

Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780007302123

Version: 2018-12-06

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’myour 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 inyour 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

Cover (#u99c69ba7-18f9-5df1-bad0-d0db7a10ecf9)

Title Page (#u0d44bebc-6286-5835-bb23-163f6b8270e1)

Copyright (#ue6eae510-afd3-522c-b55d-69bbaf63f432)

Dedication (#uda8895c4-165b-5a2e-892f-e54980e79044)

Chapter 1: Hanging Around (#u55177a5c-8cb6-53ed-a617-7ea6590ef6bc)

Chapter 2: Killer On The Loose (#ucfa44ff7-9c6f-5f64-be58-8268ae311e32)

Chapter 3: Vengeous (#u7c7048f7-7731-5aea-9b0e-1c56335ceab9)

Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast (#uae79aee7-c70f-58ae-b1d4-402db4d614c5)

Chapter 5: The Terror Of London (#u1bd4105c-8d34-5a65-82da-d8f5443f96f4)

Chapter 6: Fireballs In The Park (#u4e1f6de6-93a8-5d65-8d6d-71108cb6eb48)

Chapter 7: Unwelcome Visitors (#u14215fdd-665f-59b0-bf42-e7419d082168)

Chapter 8: Billy-Ray Sanguine (#uf1ebb781-4c53-5454-9eee-bd7b400df823)

Chapter 9: The Hidden Room (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: The Armour Of Lord Vile (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: The Terrifying Brain-Sucker Of London (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: Barfight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: Roarhaven (#litres_trial_promo)