Death Bringer recap

The Necromancers have waited generations for the Death Bringer, the one who will end the division between the living and the dead, and Solomon Wreath has long believed it is Valkyrie. When she refuses, the cleric Vandameer Craven turns the resentful young Necromancer Melancholia St Clair into the Death Bringer instead, and the truth of what the prophecy requires comes out: the Passage would kill a great many people to buy immortality for whoever survives it. While Skulduggery and Valkyrie work to stop the Temple, Lord Vile returns in force, and Valkyrie learns who he is. After Serpine murdered Skulduggery's wife and child, Skulduggery came back from death consumed by rage, took up Necromancy and served Mevolent as Lord Vile, killing on an enormous scale while leading the Dead Men, and none of his friends ever knew. Skulduggery has to become Vile again to beat Melancholia, and Valkyrie has to pull him back. The Passage is prevented, Craven dies, Melancholia is broken, Caelan is killed, Valkyrie and Fletcher break up, her sister Alice is born, and Eliza Scorn burns China Sorrows's library.

Previously: Stephanie Edgley became Valkyrie Cain, partner to the skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant. She killed Nefarian Serpine with the Sceptre of the Ancients, stopped Baron Vengeous waking the Grotesquery, and learned she is descended from the last of the Ancients. When the Diablerie opened a portal at Aranmore Farm the Sanctuary's Elders and Mr Bliss were killed, and Skulduggery drove the Faceless One back through and was trapped in the dark gods' world until Valkyrie, the Teleporter Fletcher Renn and the Dead Men brought him home; Erskine Ravel became Grand Mage with Ghastly Bespoke and Madame Mist. In the last case, thousands of Remnants escaped and possessed their way through Ireland, Kenspeckle Grouse was killed, and Valkyrie discovered that her true name is Darquesse and that the sorcerer every Sensitive has seen destroying the world is her. She became Darquesse once, fought the returned Lord Vile to a standstill, and afterwards had her true name sealed. As the outbreak ended, a Remnant took Tanith Low, and the possessed Tanith escaped. Valkyrie has trained in Necromancy under Solomon Wreath, whose order awaits a figure called the Death Bringer.

Life is quieter than it has been and Valkyrie is worse for it. She is sixteen, sleeping badly, keeping her boyfriend Fletcher at arm's length from most of her existence and letting her mirror duplicate take over more and more of her ordinary life in Haggard, where her mother is expecting a baby. She is also still keeping company with Caelan, the vampire who has attached himself to her, which she has told nobody about. Skulduggery is working cases with her as usual, the Sanctuary under Erskine Ravel is stable, and the only real pressure is coming from the Necromancers, who want an answer from Valkyrie that she has no intention of giving.

The Necromancers, who draw their magic from death and shadow, have spent generations waiting for the Death Bringer: the sorcerer who will bring about the Passage and end the division between the living and the dead. Solomon Wreath has believed for years that Valkyrie is that person, which is why he taught her, and her refusal leaves his order without the future it has been promising itself. Bodies begin turning up in a pattern that points at the Temple, the possessed Tanith Low resurfaces, and Billy-Ray Sanguine is working for someone with money and a plan. Skulduggery and Valkyrie start pulling at the Necromancers, and the Temple closes ranks.

Inside the Temple, the cleric Vandameer Craven has been advancing a candidate of his own: Melancholia St Clair, a young Necromancer who has resented Valkyrie's place in the prophecy for years and who is willing to be made into something else. The High Priest Auron Tenebrae presides over an order that no longer agrees with itself. The ritual Craven puts Melancholia through is savage, and it works: she comes out of it far more powerful than any Necromancer should be, and she is not stable. What nobody outside the Temple has been told is what the Passage will actually cost.

The truth about the Passage comes out. Ending death for everyone who survives it requires an enormous amount of death first, and the Necromancers' promised gift to the world begins with killing on a scale that would be remembered for centuries. The Sanctuary moves against the Temple, and the Temple, with a Death Bringer of its own, is no longer inclined to be governed. At the same time Lord Vile returns in force. He kills without being challenged, ignores every attempt to negotiate, and is more than a match for anything the Sanctuary can field. Valkyrie's private life comes apart in parallel: Fletcher learns about Caelan, and Caelan's attentiveness curdles into something she cannot talk her way out of.

Valkyrie learns who Lord Vile is, and it is Skulduggery. When Serpine murdered his wife and child and tortured him to death, Skulduggery came back consumed by a rage that had nowhere to go, took up Necromancy, put on the black armour and served Mevolent as one of his generals, killing on a scale no one has ever fully counted. He did it while leading the Dead Men, and none of them knew; when he finally put Vile aside, he buried the whole of it and has never spoken of it since. The armour has come back because the thing that made it has never left him. Valkyrie has to decide what her partner is, and Skulduggery has to decide whether he can be trusted to keep the armour off.

Melancholia, fully in her power, moves to bring about the Passage, and nothing the Sanctuary has is enough to slow her down. Craven's control over his own creation proves to be a fiction. Valkyrie's baby sister Alice is born in the middle of it, an entirely ordinary thing in a life that has stopped containing any, and Valkyrie's determination to keep her family out of this hardens into the only rule she has left. She and Fletcher end their relationship, and Caelan, whose obsession has stopped resembling affection, becomes a danger she has to deal with herself. To stop Melancholia at all, Skulduggery will have to be Lord Vile again, with no guarantee that there will be anything left of Skulduggery afterwards.

Skulduggery puts the armour on, becomes Lord Vile and beats Melancholia, and Valkyrie is the one who brings him back out of it afterwards, which is the hardest thing either of them has done. The Passage is prevented, Melancholia is left broken and in custody, and Craven does not survive his own plan. The Necromancer Temple is discredited, its prophecy spent, and Valkyrie and Solomon Wreath part on terms that will not be repaired. Caelan is killed after turning on her, and she and Fletcher are finished. Her sister Alice is born safely into a family that still knows nothing. Eliza Scorn settles her account with China Sorrows by burning her library to the ground, destroying a lifetime's collection. Skulduggery's secret is now Valkyrie's too, and their partnership survives it, more honest than it has ever been. Tanith Low is still possessed and still at large, still certain that Darquesse is coming, and Valkyrie's true name remains sealed.

The Passage is stopped. Melancholia St Clair, made into the Death Bringer by Vandameer Craven's ritual, is beaten and taken into custody with her power broken, and Craven does not survive the collapse of his own plan. Stopping her costs Skulduggery the thing he had spent centuries burying: he puts the armour on and becomes Lord Vile again, and Valkyrie is the one who has to bring him back out of it afterwards. The secret is now hers as well, and their partnership continues on the far side of it, changed and honest for the first time. Solomon Wreath's order is left discredited, its prophecy spent, and Wreath and Valkyrie part badly. Valkyrie ends the book with a newborn sister, Alice, a broken relationship with Fletcher after he learns about Caelan, and Caelan himself dead after his obsession turned into an attempt on her life. Eliza Scorn takes her revenge on China Sorrows by burning her library to the ground, destroying the collection China built her whole life around and leaving her with nothing but her reputation. Tanith Low is still possessed and still at large, still waiting for Darquesse, and Valkyrie's sealed true name is the one thing nobody has managed to touch.