Skulduggery Pleasant #4: Dark Days by Derek Landy

My name is Valkyrie, and I couldn't let Skulduggery be lost forever. I know it was a terrible idea to open the portal again, but I had to rescue him from the Faceless Ones. Now, Scarab spent two hundred years in prison after being framed for an assassination and has united several of our past enemies. Scarab is set on revenge and has plans to wipe out all the Sanctuaries. He had Dusk and an army of vampires attack the Irish Sanctuary, and they stole the Desolation Engine, a weapon of mass destruction. The Head Mage says its been disarmed, but Kenspeckle's been kidnapped and may be smart enough to fix the bomb. Even if we stop this attack, Scarab will have a Plan B. These headaches are making it hard to think, but it might be that I've seen my future. A Sensitive shared a vision where  I'm killed after letting my parents die.

This book is the first in the series where the antagonists aren't trying to bring back the Faceless Ones. A couple are followers of the gods, but the main motivation is revenge. I was a little confused with Crux's character. He was a lead Sanctuary detective in the last book, but now he's a devout follower of the Faceless Ones. It was a pretty quick, extreme change. I like the interactions within the protagonists and antagonists. Even though each group has its own goals, the members have their own secrets, issues from the past, and private agendas. This book got back to more of the humor found in the first two books, especially when Valkyrie was reunited with Skulduggery. He was literally in pieces and thought she was a hallucination. The plot had many twists and turns. Just when you think Scarab's plans are thwarted, we learn he isn't finished. It was clear that Valkyrie's headaches were an omen, but the truth wasn't really a surprise. The revelation about her ancestry was related to it, but it felt more unexpected. There are very dark days in her future.