The Skeleton Makes a Friend by Leigh Perry is the fifth book in the “Family Skeleton” mystery series. Publisher: Diversion Books, coming November 6, 2018.

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.

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What a treat to see another side of Sid as he makes a friend via an online game. When said friend asks him to look into the disappearance of a fellow gamer, not only does Sid find a dead body, but something is afoot at the college and it’s up to the Thackerys to fit the pieces together and root out a killer.

The author did a great job in staging this mystery with enough intrigue that had me immersed in all aspect of this well-written drama. The characters are well-developed and the dialogue is engaging keeping me amused at the antics of Sid, Georgia and Madison. The mystery kept me going and when I thought I had a handle on who the killer was, the author changed the direction all to better enhanced the telling of this tale. This was an enjoyable read with a comfortable tone and the pacing was on par with how well this story was being told. Is Sid a skeleton? He doesn’t feel like one and that is attributed to the author as she has created a believable character in Sid. I like how the author uses the online gaming as the backdrop and the situation at the college campus to tell a wonderful story of friendship and loyalty. Overall, this was one of the best book in this delightfully endearing series and I can’t wait to see what is in store for Sid, Georgia and the gang.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.