On Flashback Fridays I will share with you
the books I was not able to review
when they were first released that have been screaming at me
from my To-Be-Read bookshelf.
The Skeleton Paints a Picture: A Family Skeleton MysteryCozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – Massachusetts
Diversion Books (October 10, 2017)
Paperback: 260 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1635760460
Kindle ASIN: B07581335D
Georgia Thackery, adjunct English professor, has a new job teaching at Falstone College of Art and Design, known as FAD to its students and faculty. Living in a borrowed bungalow during winter in the snowiest part of Massachusetts, Georgia feels her isolation weighing as heavily as the weather. Then she receives a package containing her best friend, Sid, a walking, talking skeleton who has lived with the Thackery family since Georgia was six. With Georgia working out of town, Sid was lonely too.
The two of them make plans for a cozy semester together, and it might have worked out that way if Sid hadn’t snuck out in the middle of the night to play in the snow and spotted a crashed car. When he drags Georgia out to investigate, they find the driver behind the wheel, apparently dead from the collision.
Initially, police think it’s an accident, so Georgia and Sid think that’s the end of it—until Georgia finds out the body hits closer to home than she’d realized…
Dollycas’s Thoughts
I am so happy this series has found a new home.
Georgia Thackery has a new position at Falstone College of Art and Design, which meant moving out of her parents home but leaving her daughter there to stay in her school. That means Georgia gets a little lonely and all the snow falling doesn’t help. One day she arrives home from work to find 2 large boxes waiting on her porch. Imagine her surprise when she opens the first on to find her pal Sid. Sid the skeleton would walks and talks and loves to shovel snow. Sid has lived with her family since Georgia was six. His arrival was just what she needed. Then Sid wakes her up in the middle of the night telling her he found something. She bundles up and trudges out in the snow following Sid to what appears to have been a car accident. The driver did not survive. Georgia is shocked to learn the victim was part of her department at the college and she and Sid start to think her death was not an accident but murder. Especially when the police started questioning her more about the case. They decide to use Sid’s mad computer skills to start an investigation of their own.
I want my own Sid! What a cool thing to have. Who wouldn’t want a friend like him? He is a great sounding board, gives awesome advice, doesn’t sleep and loves to clean and cook and is an excellent assistant sleuth!
We meet a whole new cast of characters with Georgia’s new job. It is a crew full of artists and the English professors that teach the classes that are part of the general curriculum for students to get their degrees. They are a unique group. Georgia does have a past history with one of the profs, but can barely stand to be around him now, he is kinda creepy.
Leigh Perry has made my day by continuing this series. Georgia and Sid are two of my favorite cozy characters. At no time do you feel as if Sid is beyond the realm of possibility. The relationship he has with Georgia and family seems perfectly real. I don’t even think that is this any kind of a paranormal story when I am reading. Sid just IS and I have accepted that – at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂
The author also gives us a solid mystery to solve. Who would want to kill the woman who runs the writing lab at the college? Full of twists and turns and a lot of digging by Sid brings forth several suspects. Georgia enlists the help of a couple of students to try to draw out the real killer. The pace was brisk, the dialogue was just right and the drama was at the perfect level. There are also many laugh out loud moments, your funny bone will be tickled. Sid antics just crack me up and had me cheering when he saves the day at the end of the story.
This is a great series but with a new publisher this one can be read all on its own, but I bet you will want to go back and read the first three too!
You can find out more about Leigh Perry and her books on her website here.
I am giving away 1 Kindle Copy of
The Skeleton Paints A Picture.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Leigh Perry is a new to me author but one that I’d sure love to explore her writings. Your wonderful review shows me that “The Skeleton Paints a Picture” would definitely be a book that I’d love to read.
Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
2clowns at arkansas dot net