She finds her uncle’s last book and became engrossed in it. Stephanie assures her that she will be fine she not afraid of this house after dark. Her mother decides to walk for help before the floodwaters make this impossible. Having visited Haggard many times over the years, Stephanie is unconcerned when she and her mother get stranded there by floods and their car breaking down. Mr Skulduggery Pleasant merely receives some advice from his old friend, that his life and destiny are his own. Her Uncle Fergus and Aunt Beryl are furious to learn that all they have been left is a small brooch. Stephanie’s parents are made custodians of the estate until she turns eighteen. The mysterious mourner leaves but it is not the last time Stephanie will see him, in fact, he will play a significant role in her life and would change it in a way she could never have imagined.Īt the reading of Gordon’s will a short time later, Stephanie is astonished to learn that she has been left the bulk of his estate, including the house. He says that he was a friend of Gordon and tells her that Gordon had liked her and appreciated that she understood him. Beryl was spiteful and unpleasant, a trait she’d passed onto their twin daughters.Īt the funeral Stephanie notices a man wearing a long coat and whose face is covered with a hat, scarf and dark glasses. Fergus was as unpleasant as Stephanie’s father was nice and Gordon was strange. Their other brother, Fergus, had also drifted away.

He had been close to his brother when young, until Gordon got in with his strange and unsettling crowd. Stephanie’s father owns a construction company and, together with her mother, they lead a quiet and conventional life that borders on a little bit boring. She liked to visit her Uncle Gordon at Haggard and loved his old and interesting home. Stephanie was only 12 but knew her own mind and, like her uncle, had little time for fools. He did like his niece, Stephanie though she understood him and his sense of humour. All in all, his life was a bit mysterious. His two brothers had kept in touch with him but had become a little distant because of these friends and because Gordon had a sense of humour that could offend he didn’t suffer fools either.

A successful writer, his of horror fiction had brought him enough success to have enabled him to buy a large house, named Haggard, near Dublin, and had given him wealth, fame and some rather strange friends. Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy Gordon Edgley’s death was sudden and unexpected.