Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy

Skullduggery Pleasant and his associate, Valkyrie Cain, are just finishing up a case where they collared the not-so-bad wizard Scapegrace, who is desperate to be horrible and feared, but just can't manage it.

After Valkyrie captures him, she and Skulduggery are immediately confronted with another problem. A really bad wizard has escaped from a supposedly ultra-secure prison, and this is a very bad thing. His name is Baron Vengeous, and he was once a follower of the Necromancer known as Lord Vile.

Vile sought to bring The Faceless Ones back from where they were banished long ago, and Vengeous completely agreed with Vile's plan, and now that his master is dead, he's out to See his master's plan come to fruition.

But Vengeus is no simple villain. He has followers of his own, like Dusk, a vampire, and those who don't follow him can be hired, like Springheel Jack and Billy Ray Sanguine. But he needs a few things to bring back the Faceless Ones- like Lord Vile's armor of Death and shadows, and to bring back a creature known as the Grotesquery, made from bits and pieces of other creatures so vile that many of them no longer exist.

And to bring the Grotesquery to life, he needs one thing, the blood of Valkyrie Cain. But then, she's wanted dead by a lot of people, including something known as the Torment, who wants her dead precisely because her blood can be used in such a fashion- and because she is one of the last living descendants of the Ancients, a group who were enemies of the Faceless Ones, but equally as objectionable in their own way.

But when Vengeous succeeds in finding and donning the armor, he's a significant portion of the way on his path to the goal. And only Skulduggery and Valkyrie stand in his way. But Valkryie is dealing with her own problems, including family and an increasing dependence on her reflection to live life with her family while she goes on "adventures" with Skulduggery. But eventually,something is going to have to give. But when Vengeous and Dusk target her family, will Valkyrie be able to save them? Will she even want to?

And there is the question of how Baron Vengeous escaped from his supposedly escape-proof prison. Can one of the good guys be on Vengeous and Vile's side? And how far up is he placed in the Council's Hierarchy?

I like this series of novels, both because of what it has (fantastic adventures) and because it points out the cost Valkyrie is paying to have these adventures- she spends so much time apart from her family that she no longer even really knows them well any more- including the two she really loves, her parents.

Because she has chosen to enter the game so young, Valkyrie is missing out on her real life with her parents. And yes, the rest of her family may be horrible people, but she isn't even spending time with her mom and dad anymore- and that just doesn't seem healthy. Only time will tell how this comes to affect her in the future.

The rest of the adventure is fairly thrilling, but most of the tension seems to come from her running up against the problem of what Valkyrie is doing to herself in the name of her pursuit of adventure, right up until near the end, that almost seems the bigger dilemma, no matter what else is happening, ad it's clear that this will carry over further into other books.

I liked the story, and I like the continuing story of Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery as they work together. Highly Recommended.