At loose ends after four years of college, three majors, and no degree, Lee is looking forward to five peaceful months in Eugene, Oregon. She’s agreed to housesit for her maternal grandfather, a world-renowned Shakespearean scholar, while he goes off to lecture at Oxford.

But someone is trying to drive Lee and her friend Casey from the house. They are frightened by noises during the night and see a dark figure running through the yard. Before they can carry out their plan to identify the man and turn him over to the police, the young women find him dead. The man isn’t known to either of them - if he isn’t a stalker, why was he trying to drive them away?

Casey searches the Internet for information about the dead man while Lee searches the house. Why, she wonders, is there no evidence of her grandmother Geneva, Tess’s mother? Geneva, a New Orleans belle, left Oregon and her family when Tess was very young. Lee’s search takes her to a root cellar hidden under an unused darkroom - and a secret cache. A case filled with canisters of undeveloped film and photographs of people partying at a masked ball, photos of the same revelers: two men and a woman, posing, with big smiles on their faces, in front of black man hanging from a tree. And, in the same metal box, a robe and hood. The photos and the implication of past horrors drive Casey away and Lee into a state of depression.

Lee is brought out of her funk by a visit from the FBI. “Blackmailed” into cooperating, Lee has no choice but to allow the team of agents to search the house. They find nothing. Alone once again, Lee returns to the root cellar where she finds her grandfather’s diary. Her curiosity is peaked. She takes an intensive course in photography so she can process the undeveloped film -- and exposes something even more frightening. One of the robed men, one of the men who very likely had something to do with the lynching, is now a third-party candidate for president.

Unable to locate the so-called FBI man, Lee decides to turn over the pictures to the press. Bruno Perillo, a man she knew in school and who now works for a San Diego newspaper, sells the concept of Lee’s story to his editor. And Lee, because of her eidetic memory, is hired as a photographer. Lee, Bruno, and Casey take off for New Orleans. Their cover: a series of stories on how a major event like Mardi Gras affects the city; their purpose: find the site of the lynching and tie the crime to the presidential candidate.

Although not one of Ms. Wilhelm’s best books, Skeletons is still an interesting read. The plot is a familiar one: the discovery of long hidden family secrets that could be detrimental to the future plans of a powerful, influential, and dangerous man who will stop at nothing to keep his past from coming to light. Secrets that once revealed may harm Lee, and possibly her family.

Skeletons is ultimately a coming of age story. It’s about Lee Donne and her search for her family’s past and for her future, and mystery readers pay a price for this. The focus on Lee means that the plot and the bad guys are often so far in the background that plot twists are almost missed. Lee describes herself as passionless, someone without obsessions - and unfortunately this lack of passion is evident in the story. Often her behavior is described - we’re told how she thinks and how she reacts instead of “feeling” her confusion and fear. Lee’s unfamiliarity with “obsession” makes for erratic movement through the story. One minute she allows her curiosity and her companions to drive her forward- so the story moves along. But then she pulls back in fear and defends herself by withholding information that could endanger everyone -- and the story slows down.

A fictional character in the second decade of her life who admits that she doesn’t have all the answers is refreshing. But I wasn’t always sure what it was about Lee that compelled the loyalty of her friends. Sometimes I liked Lee, sometimes I didn’t. You’ll have to judge her for yourself.

--Carla Pulasky