A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry, Narrator: Katina Kalin

A Skeleton in the Family
A Family Skeleton Mystery, Book 1
Written by: Leigh Perry
Narrator: Katina Kalin

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

A Skeleton in the Family

Katina Kalin Narrator

Narrator Review:  Katina Kalin is enchanting and beyond spectacular. Kalin's performance of this imaginative and outstanding book, is polished and impeccable. There simply are not enough adjectives to praise her with. Her voice is gentle, expressive and very appealing. Every mood and nuance is captured in a magical way making Ms. Kalin a shining star in the audio book world. I love listening to her and she now tops my list of favorite narrators.

Leigh Perry Author

Book Review: A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry.

Sid, the Thackery's resident skeleton has resided in their attic for the past thirty years. He amuses himself watching television, reading books and comics and he loves to eavesdrop.

Georgia an Adjunct Professor, was hired mid-term at the local college, was able to move into the family home rent free while her parents are on sabbatical. Fourteen year old Madison once again has to adjust to a new school. Adjunct Professors move around a lot, and Madison has adapted to school changes pretty well for a young person.  

Georgia has considered Sid her best friend since she was six years old, but, daughter Madison knows nothing about him. Georgia wants Sid and Madison to meet but Sid has every excuse a skeleton can come up with to not let Madison know about him. Georgia has credible concerns about keeping Sid a secret. Sharing the same house for very long proves to be a challenge.

Skeletons rattle around and there's always the chance that Madison will run into him unexpectedly. Georgia's sister Deborah, has ignored Sid for years in the belief that it's not possible for a skeleton to talk. This kind of hurts Sid's feelings, I thought it was funny when he asked if she 'liked his new haircut' but she ignored him. She flat out refuses to acknowledge him in any way.

Excerpt:

"Sid, are you sure you want to play it like this, I'm sure Madison is ready to hear about you. Sid and I agreed when Madison was born that it would be best if we waited to let them meet to face to skull. it wasn't that he was over terrifying in appearance. My fathers Great Aunt Margaret who used a pound of white face powder a week and dyed her hair to the darkness of a black hole, was much scarier.... "

Sid hears (by eavesdropping) about an anime conference to be held locally so he wheedles Georgia into taking him as shinigami from Soul Eater. Sid, decked out in a shinigami costume is happily doing the shinigami chop on everyone that passes by.

Until he recognizes a woman  that triggers feelings of fear from when he was alive. He doesn't know who she is or why she causes such a turmoil of emotions in him. With no name tag on, there was no way for him to identify her. Sid is now possessed with wanting to know who he was, and doesn't foresee that this is setting him and Georgia on a deadly path with his killer.

We've had books with talking cats, dogs, and people who can communicate with them. A living skeleton is a new twist on this theme. A skeleton has a lot more leeway for story lines than a cat or dog. Sid is funny, and Georgia is charming and clever her daughter Madison is the typical teenager maybe a cut above.

I never knew a thing about anime let alone Soul Eater and had to google it. I also was not sure what an Adjunct Professor was and had to google that too. My impression from Georgia's experiences, it sounds like they not only do not pay them very well, they do not treat them very well either. Overall, the book is promising of future stories with Sid and his wise cracking bone jokes and I am certainly looking forward to them.