Playing with Fire by Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant #2)

Hello, my darling readers!
After I enjoyed the first Skulduggery Pleasant book so much, I immediately had to pick up #2. Let’s see whether that one is good as well!

Playing with Fire on Goodreads

The Plot (according to Goodreads):

Skulduggery and Valkyrie are facing a new enemy: Baron Vengeous, who is determined to bring back the terrifying Faceless Ones and is crafting an army of evil to help him. Added to that, Vengeous is about to enlist a new ally (if he can raise it from the dead): the horrible Grotesquery, a very unlikable monster of legend.

Once Vengeous is on the loose, dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland. Now pretty much everybody is out to kill Valkyrie, and the daring detective duo faces its biggest challenge yet.

But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home?

The Rating:

I’ll make sure to keep this short.
It’s just as good as the first one!

The story is intriguing enough with a good number of twists and turns that’ll keep you on your toes. It’s a really good mystery/crime book that you can’t put down.

We get some new antagonists and monsters that must have sprung from the deepest darkest corners of Derek Landy’s imagination. Honestly, with every new thing he comes up with, I get even more curious to pick up all the remaining books.

Of course, almost all characters from book #1 (that aren’t dead) return. There is quite some development going on especially in terms of Stephanie/Valkyrie Cain (still love her new name). I can’t wait to follow her journey further along into this world of magic.
Tanith also makes an appearance and I really hope that’ll she get more space in the following books as she is really kick-ass.

Last but not least, there is Skulduggery who is – as usual – delightful. His humor is one of the biggest reasons I would recommend these books to anyone. In combination with Valkyrie he really is amazing.

Playing with Fire was just as great a book as the first one. Derek Landy really has a good thing going here and I can’t wait to dive deeper into the story!

Did you read this book? Let me know in the comments what you think!

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