Skulduggery Pleasant Playing With Fire has two main characters; Skulduggery and his companion Valkyrie. Skulduggery is a wizard skeleton detective who fights crime that is out of the ordinary. His companion Valkyrie has special powers, but since she is 12 she has to lead a double life so she has a clone to go to school for her while she is fighting crime with Skulduggery.
At the beginning, Baron Vengeous(who is an old enemy of Skulduggery) escaped from prison. All he wants to do is bring back a monster that was created by a cult called the faceless ones. The faceless ones are a dark and evil group. They created the monster Grotesquery. Vengous’ intent is to resurrect this creature.