A story about a 12-year-old girl and a skeleton detective has been voted Irish book of the decade.

In an online poll, Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant came out top of a shortlist of 50 books, beating an eclectic but heavyweight selection of writers that included John Banville, Colum McCann and Colm Tóibín.

Although aimed at young adults, the four books in the Skulduggery Pleasant series have sold about one million copies in Ireland and the UK since the first was published in 2007. They have also been translated into 33 languages.

See: Irish Times