The Skeleton Paints a Picture

The Skeleton Paints a Picture (2017) Leigh Perry (Family Skeleton Mystery #4)

This premise of this series is a little silly–one of the two main characters is an animated skeleton. But once you accept that, it’s a fun cozy mystery.

Georgia Thackery is an adjunct professor, seeking the magical grail of a tenured position.

“Why don’t colleges hire all permanent professors?”

“Using adjuncts is cheaper. Colleges pay us per course taught and don’t have to pony up for insurance and vacation and all that.”

“And they can get away with working you full time without giving you benefits?”

“The thing is, I only teach three classes at FAD, which puts me under the legal limit for full-time work.”

And her best friend just happens to be a skeleton.

“I’ve got nothing to hide, Sid, other than you.” And technically, I didn’t even have to hide him—it was completely legal to have a human skeleton.

Her current position is at an art school, where she isn’t teaching literature, as much as making sure the students can write clearly about their art.

And even in art schools there are still snobs.

She didn’t know comics, and we got together so I could explain enough of the common tropes for her to work with my students. I recommended some stuff for her to read, but though she didn’t come out and say so, I could tell she thought sequential art was a waste of time and talent.

When a car ends up off the road and embedded in an embankment near her house, Georgia discovers it was her coworker–the woman in charge of the writing lab–and the death seems a little suspicious.

In addition to snobbery about comics and other “non-serious” forms of art, the faculty members end up discussing the grammar of queerness.

“If they were to become singular, what would we use for plural?” Dahna said with a tinge of horror in her voice.

I hoped that meant she was really expressing an opinion as opposed to echoing Professor Waldron’s thoughts to get ahead in the tenure race. “You is both plural and singular,” I pointed out.

“Except when y’all are in my part of the country,” Caroline said with a grin.

And one of the students has the WORSE roommate ever.

“Okay, Marissa, you’ve been rooming with her. Do you think she’d steal from other artists?”

“In a heartbeat. She stole my pads!” Then she colored and looked away from Indigo. “You know, my sanitary pads. She never even told me, so when I needed some, there were none left.”

What I particularly liked is these points were part of the story: anyone with a uterus knows how vile stealing someone’s sanitary supplies and not replacing them is, so that tells you not just how terrible Bad Bobbie is, but also the misery of menstrual supplies being an additional expense women have to bear.

And the skeleton was entertaining–especially his excitement about snow blowers and snow plows.

This is the fourth book in the series, and I didn’t feel I was missing anything by jumping in here (which is one of the nice things about cozy mysteries), so another sign of good story-telling.

Characters: Sid, Ms. Georgia Thackery, Mr. Perkins, Professor Martha Waldron, Caroline Craig, Owen Deen, Renee Turner, Dahna Kaleka, Officer Ginny Buchanan, Kelly Griffith, Indigo Williamson, Marissa Esqueleto, Bobbie Fitzpatrick/Bad Bobbie, Lucas Silva, Ashwin Inamdar, Jacqueline Lewis, Greg Azzopardi, Jeremy Nolan

Publisher: Diversion Books

Rating: 8/10

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