In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, the Books team couldn't very well bypass the amazing, talented children's / young adult author, Derek Landy and his amazing and quirky main character of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Stephanie Edgley (or as known in later books, Valkyrie Cain).
She meets her late uncle's old friend, Skulduggery Pleasant, who is a skeleton detective. Soon enough, she and Skulduggery uncover the truth about her uncles death, with the help of friends such as ready-for-anything, tough, witty Tanith Low; and Ghastly Bespoke, who helps make impenetrable clothes for Stephanie as the story progresses to help her beat villain's such as Nefarian Serpine.
In the novels, every person has three names. Their given name (what their parents decided to call them at the time of their birth), their chosen name (the name in which they choose to go by to protect themselves from magic and people who may hurt them), and their true name (the name in which only very few people know about themselves. Many people may never know their true name).
For Stephanie, in the first book where we meet and get to know her character, she only knows her given name (Stephanie Edgley) and she has her chosen name, in which she refers to herself as Valkyrie Cain. She chose the name 'Valkyrie' after hearing "Rise of the Valkyries", and she chose the second name 'Cain' after her friend Skulduggery stated that she had a 'penchant for raising Cain', meaning that she attracts trouble.
Derek Landy's female lead of his best selling series really grows as a character. From the unsure, frightened Stephanie Edgley we see at the start of the books, she matures and learns to adapt to her new lifestyle and become the brave, ruthless Valkyrie Cain readers and fans know and love today.