Hey, punks! Skulduggery and Valkyrie are about to make your day.... Fifteen-year-old Ryan is running away from home, looking for escape and adventure. But unfortunately, sometimes people do get what they wish for. Ryan hasn’t gone far before he is set upon by a bunch of scary, nihilistic punk-sorcerers who need him to set off a doomsday device that will destroy the planet and everyone on it. Fun! Riding to the rescue, however, is a certain skeleton detective and his teenage partner/combat accessory. Now Skulduggery and Valkyrie have only a few hours to figure out what's going on, while saving Ryan and – incidentally – the whole world. And all that time, the punk-sorcerers are closing in....