Most of you know I’m getting ready to move in September, so you never know what book I might review as I’m going through piles. Leigh Perry’s The Skeleton Paints a Picture is six years old, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about it.

How does an adjunct English professor and a skeleton solve a mystery together? “We’ll do what we always do: nose around, ask stupid questions, speculate wildly, and argue about everything.”

Georgia Thackery is homesick for her family. She has a new job teaching as an adjunct professor at Falstone College of Art and Design (FAD), and the emphasis is not on English there. It’s a nasty winter in Massachusetts. But, there’s a touch of home when she receives two boxes, and the family skeleton, Sid, is in one of them. Sid has been Georgia’s best friend since she was six. Together, they’ve solved several murder cases. But, on his first night there, did Sid really have to find a crashed car with a woman’s dead body nearby? How does Georgia explain the discovery in the middle of the night to a shrewd police officer? It’s even harder to explain it a couple days later when she learns Kelly Griffith as on the faculty at FAD, and she didn’t recognize her.

It doesn’t take long to realize Kelly’s death wasn’t an accident. Now, the team supreme is back in the sleuthing business. And, their investigation leads back to FAD. But, now that a tenured position is up for grabs in the English Department, all the adjunct faculty are looking at each other with suspicion. And, they have a lot of reasons for suspecting Georgia might know more than she’s telling.

Perry’s mystery combines the cutthroat world of academia with stolen art and murder. It takes a while for Sid and Georgia to find the right track in this investigation. But, it’s always fun to watch the two friends work together. They each bring their own gifts to their cases. There’s always humor to alleviate the tension, and this book is no exception. Bone jokes, music, and friendship are essential elements in The Skeleton Paints a Picture.

You never know what book I might dig up in the treasures that are all over the place as I’m getting ready to move.

Leigh Perry’s website is https://www.leighperryauthor.com/

The Skeleton Paints a Picture by Leigh Perry. Diversion Books, 2017. ISBN 9781635760460 (paperback), 257p.


FTC Full Disclosure – It’s six years old! I have no idea where I got the copy of the book.