Skulduggery Pleasant

Derek Landy is a young Irish writer who possesses in spades the literary equivalent of the gift of the gab. His present novel is about a spirited 12-year-old girl who teams up with a crusading, living skeleton in order to save the world from an evil sorcerer. This is not always easy to believe, particularly when the skeleton in question, Skulduggery Pleasant himself, also has a mean right hook and is susceptible to pain and even death. But never mind – the whole story rattles along easily as well as inconsequentially, rather like one of those rambling bar-room conversations that seem amusing at the time but are difficult to recall on the following day. The author is also a black belt in Kenpo Karate, and this sometimes shows in his over-long descriptions of the numerous fights that keep breaking out. But otherwise this is all good, amiable stuff, excellent for holiday reading.