Family Skeleton Mystery

Most families have skeletons in their closets... Moving back into her parents' house with her teenage daughter had not been Georgia Thackery's "Plan A." But when she got a job at the local college, it seemed the sensible thing to do. So she settled in and began reconnecting with old friends. Including Sid. Sid is the Thackery family's skeleton. He's lived in the house as long as Georgia can remember, although no one, including Sid, knows exactly where he came from and how he came to be a skeleton. Sid walks, he talks, he makes bad jokes, he tries to keep Georgia's dog from considering him a snack. And he manages to persuade Georgia to let him leave the house. But when she takes him to an anime convention-disguised as a skeleton, of course-he sees a woman who triggers memories of his past. Now he is determined to find out how he died-with Georgia's help. But their investigation may uncover a killer who's still alive and well and bad to the bone...

And the best performance as a skull goes to... After years of hiding in the Thackery family house, Sid the skeleton is delighted to finally have his moment in the spotlight. He's starring in a high school production of Hamlet. Well, not so much starring in as being a prop. At least part of him has a part-he's using his head to play Yorick of "Alas, poor Yorick" fame. Every day, Georgia Thackery's daughter, Madison, who's also in the play, brings in his skull, and every night, she takes him home... Until one night when he's accidentally left at school-and hears the sounds of someone being murdered. But the next day, there's no body and no one seems to be missing. Sid is not a numbskull-he knows what he heard. Georgia thinks he imagined it-until a week later when a body is found. Now Georgia and Sid will both need to keep their heads as they stick their necks out and play sleuth to catch the conscience of a killer...

Sid the Skeleton bones up on clues to solve a Haunted House homicide in this mystery from the author of The Skeleton Takes a Bow... What holiday could bring more warmth to a skeleton's chest cavity than Halloween? And when you're a living skeleton who's not supposed to be seen outside the house, it's a welcome chance to get some fresh air and rub bony elbows with people. That's why Sid doesn't mind wearing a full-body dog suit and going as Scooby-Doo along with Georgia Thackery's Velma to the Halloween Howl. Sid can't wait to go through the Haunted House-but he gets rattled for real when a genuine dead body is discovered. Trapped inside as the police quickly seal off the crime scene, Sid makes no bones about dropping the dog suit and posing as an actual skeleton. This murder is a skull-scratcher, but as long as Sid is on the inside, he might as well case the joint to figure out who used the cover of darkness to commit the perfect crime...

Diversion has the pleasure of taking over publication of Leigh Perry's wonderful supernatural mystery series (previously published at Penguin) about college professor Georgia Thackery and her "Watson," a living skeleton named Sid. "Dr. Georgia Thackery is smart, resourceful, and determined to be a great single mom to her teenager. Georgia is normal in every respect-except that her best friend happens to be a skeleton named Sid. You'll love the adventures of this unexpected mystery-solving duo." -Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author 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... "A very touching and entertaining whodunit. The mystery is intelligent and nicely done with fun insights into academia and anthropology." -RT Book Reviews on A Skeleton in the Family

Just in time for Bouchercon 2018 and Halloween 2018, Diversion returns to Leigh Perry's wonderful Family Skeleton Series of delightful cozy mysteries with a new story! Georgia Thackery is feeling pretty good about her summer job teaching at prestigious Overfeld College, and she's renting a rustic cabin right by a lake for herself, her daughter, Madison, and her best friend, Sid the Skeleton. Together again, the trio are enjoying the quiet when a teenager named Jen shows up looking for her friend. Georgia doesn't recognize the name, but she learns that the person Jen was looking for is actually Sid. Sid reveals that he and Jen are part of a regular online gaming group that formed locally, and one of their members has gone missing. Sid admits that he might have bragged about his investigative prowess, enough so that Jen wants him to find their missing player. Given that Sid doesn't have many friends offline-none, really, unless you count the Thackery family-Georgia agrees to help him search. They manage to discreetly enlist Jen, who lives in town, and follow the clues to... a dead buddy. Now they've got a killer on their hands. Probing the life of Sid's friend, they realize a lot is wrong both on campus and in the seemingly quaint town, and someone doesn't want them looking deeper.

Dr. Georgia Thackery is back at home with her parents after finding a new adjunct position at Bostock College. Everyone is excited for their first family Christmas with nothing to hide. Why? Because Georgia's daughter Madison is now in the know about Sid, their walking, talking family skeleton. But their Christmas cheer is interrupted when the Thackerys' dog Byron goes missing on a cold December night. When he's finally found, he has a femur clutched between his jaws, and Georgia and Madison race to apologize to Sid for letting the dog gnaw on him yet again. Except that all of Sid's bones are present and accounted for. This bone is from somebody else, and when they trace Byron's trail to an overgrown lot nearby, they find the rest of the skeleton. It's the normal kind, not moving or telling jokes, and when the police come to take charge, they're sure it was murder. And one of Georgia's adjunct friends could be implicated. With tensions stirring at the college and everyone hiding a secret or two, Sid and Georgia must uncover the truth before the ghost of a Christmas past strikes again.