The Family Skeleton Mysteries by Leigh Perry

                   I was looking at the mystery section of the library one day and I found far too many new series I wanted to try.  Easily I could have walked off with a ton of books that day, but I was good.  Instead I only took a couple.  Then I made mental notes of the others so I could go back and reserve the first in each series.  One of the series that stuck in my head the most was The Family Skeleton Mysteries.  So far there are only three books in the series and already I have read them all.     

                The Family Skeleton Mysteries revolves around Dr. Georgia Thackery, an adjunct English professor.  She’s living in her parents’ house while they are away on sabbatical and teaching at their school.  Living with Georgia is her teenage daughter, Madison, and a skeleton named Sid.  Sid is not just any skeleton.  He is able to walk and talk all on his own.  Sid can also take himself apart and put himself back together without any help.  This freedom of movement is how in the first book, A Skeleton in the Family, Sid is able to go to an anime convention where he sees a woman who strikes his memory.  Now, Sid up to this point has zero idea who he was before he died.  This woman he sees is someone from his past, he just does not know who or how.  He asks Georgia to help him figure out the mystery, but when they go to talk to the woman they find her dead.  With a dead woman before them, Sid and Georgia now have three mysteries to solve.  Who is Sid?  Why would someone want to kill this woman?  And are these two questions somehow connected?

                In The Skeleton Takes a Bow, Georgia agrees to let Sid’s skull be used in Madison’s school production of Hamlet.  One night Madison accidentally leaves Sid’s skull in the theatre.  Of course that is the night that a murder happens.  Sid isn’t able to see the murder, or any of the people involved, but he does hear it.  When Madison and Georgia pick him up the next morning, he lets them know what he heard, but there is a problem.  There isn’t a body anywhere in the theatre.  Without a body, the only person who believes Sid is Georgia.  She tries to give the police an anonymous tip about it, but they don’t believe her either.  Even when a body does turn up they dismiss what Georgia has to say.  The only way either she or Sid are going to be able to put their minds at ease is if they solve the murder themselves.  That means they both must go back to high school.      

                The Skeleton Haunts a House is the third book in the series.  This time, instead of witnessing a murder, a body is found.  Not by either Sid or Georgia, but by someone attending the haunted house.  Nobody saw anything and nobody understands why anyone would kill a girl everyone seemed to like.  Or at the very least, didn’t have problems with.  Georgia’s sister, Deborah, is running the haunted house and is desperate for answers.  She’s so desperate she asks Sid and Georgia to investigate.  They have to unravel who could possibly want to kill this girl and why.  What they discover is that looks can certainly be deceiving. 

                The Family Skeleton Mysteries are really a fun set of books. There is humor, a good mystery, and none of them take very long to read. They are great to have on weekends, because with the extra quiet time I was able to zip right through. Unfortunately, being able to read the books so fast meant I went through the series that quickly too. As of yet I’m not able to find any mention of a fourth book in the works. Since the third book wrapped up in a way that could easily be the end of the series I wonder if that is all there will be. I’m hoping that’s not the case, but if it is, I’m happy with the series as it is. The three books that exist make it pretty complete. If a fourth book were to come out, that would simply give me something else to enjoy.