From inside her Toorak mansion, Margaret, matriarch, widow of Edmund Rice O'Day of O'Day Funerals, secretly surveys her family in the garden. Everyone, including Margaret herself, is oblivious to the secrets that threaten to be uncovered by a visiting American relative who is determined to excavate the O'Day's family history. How far will Margaret go in order to bury the truth? Family Skeleton examines the dark heart of a family that has for generations been engaged in dark business. You can't dig a grave without disturbing the smooth surface of the ground. Deftly woven with elegant wit and with compassion, this dark comedy is about what you might unearth if you dig deep enough. *** "Carmel Bird is a literary artist to her fingertips...She writes prose that has the precision of poetry and that uncanny quality poetry has of making the inner life speak." — Peter Craven *** Carmel Bird is an established Australian author of over 20 books. She has been three-times shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. [Subject: Fiction]