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A review by readerpants
A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry
3.0
This was my first ever super-cozy. I was sold by this quote from Susan Jane Bigelow over at the Book Smugglers:
"If you read cozies you know why they’re so great. But if you don’t, ask yourself this: do you think you’d like books about scrappy, intelligent, mostly female protagonists with adorable jobs who live in cute little towns solving mysteries with their cats? Do you also like books that often have romance elements and light speculative fiction elements mixed in? If so, then cozies may be for you!"
(http://thebooksmugglers.com/2014/12/smugglivus-2014-guest-author-susan-jane-bigelow.html)
Well, that is utterly convincing. Those are all things I like! So I put in a purchase request for this book, one of the first she recommended in her post, and it finally arrived.
It was pretty funny. However, what was funniest about it was that although it was ostensibly a cozy, it was in actuality a screed about the miseries of adjuncting. Adjunct etiquette, parking passes, fighting over desk space, dating other adjuncts, knowing everybody from having worked at dozens of other colleges, adjuncts squatting in empty offices... it was all there. There was a lot more adjunct-talk than there was mystery-solving.
I liked the bone puns, the characters, the contemporary feel, and the setting. The plot didn't really engage me all that much, but I could see its appeal for a voracious reader who likes a gentle read with a lot of humor. I can certainly understand how this might be someone's book candy.
"If you read cozies you know why they’re so great. But if you don’t, ask yourself this: do you think you’d like books about scrappy, intelligent, mostly female protagonists with adorable jobs who live in cute little towns solving mysteries with their cats? Do you also like books that often have romance elements and light speculative fiction elements mixed in? If so, then cozies may be for you!"
(http://thebooksmugglers.com/2014/12/smugglivus-2014-guest-author-susan-jane-bigelow.html)
Well, that is utterly convincing. Those are all things I like! So I put in a purchase request for this book, one of the first she recommended in her post, and it finally arrived.
It was pretty funny. However, what was funniest about it was that although it was ostensibly a cozy, it was in actuality a screed about the miseries of adjuncting. Adjunct etiquette, parking passes, fighting over desk space, dating other adjuncts, knowing everybody from having worked at dozens of other colleges, adjuncts squatting in empty offices... it was all there. There was a lot more adjunct-talk than there was mystery-solving.
I liked the bone puns, the characters, the contemporary feel, and the setting. The plot didn't really engage me all that much, but I could see its appeal for a voracious reader who likes a gentle read with a lot of humor. I can certainly understand how this might be someone's book candy.