The End of the World

A novelette.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie are back, in an exclusive World Book Day novelette, set after the momentous events of Death Bringer...
Hey, punks! Skulduggery and Valkyrie are about to make your day...
15-year-old Ryan is running away from home, looking for escape and adventure. But unfortunately, sometimes people DO get what they wish for. Ryan hasn’t gone far before he is set upon by a bunch of scary, nihilistic punk-sorcerers who need him to set off a doomsday device that will destroy the planet and everyone on it. Fun!
Riding to the rescue, however, is a certain skeleton detective and his teenage partner/combat accessory. Now Skulduggery and Valkyrie only have a few hours to figure out what's going on, while saving Ryan and – incidentally – the whole world.
And all that time, the punk-sorcerors are closing in...
Derek Landy
Derek Landy (born 1973) lives near Dublin, Ireland. Before writing his children's story about a sharply dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a slasher thriller in which everybody dies. As a black belt in Kenpo Karate, he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies, but he's assuming they'll show up sooner or later). The reason Derek writes his own biographical blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane.
Skulduggery Pleasant
Series contains 16 primary works and has 20 total works. Current series reading order on below.
The novels in this young adult dark fantasy series cross the horror, comedy, mystery, and fantasy genres.