Josie Giancola has a unique hobby and passion that she's
turned into a
business - collecting buttons. She's the owner of the
Button Box, where she
buys and sells buttons for various uses. Josie is pretty
intrigued when Angela
Morningside brings her a charm string to appraise. Charm
strings were used
in Victorian times by girls to make charms; legend held that
once a girl had
strung together one thousand unique buttons, the owner would
meet her one
true love.
Angela is a bit obsessed by things like charms, horoscopes,
and the like, but
Josie isn't a believer in such things. But she starts to
wonder if Angela is on
to something. Angela is in a hurry to get ride of the charm
string because
she thinks it is bringing her bad luck, and just as she is
about to get it
out of her life, she is strangled to death with it.
Although Josie barely knew
Angela, she gets involved with the murder investigation
because no one
knows buttons better than she does.
Josie is soon traveling back and forth from Chicago to
Ardent Lake (Angela's
hometown) to figure out who had a motive to kill Angela and
whether it has to
do with the one button that is missing from the charm
string. All of this time
sleuthing gives Josie time to get closer to Nevin Riley, the
police officer who is
the official investigator on the case and the man who has
been dating Josie
for awhile while not yet sealing his position as an official
boyfriend.
PANIC BUTTON is a nicely written cosy that includes a nice
primer on the
history of buttons and charm strings without being tedious.
The mystery has
a great pace with Josie trying to uncover the suspect from a
number of people
with reasonable motives, as well as trying to figure out
where her ex-husband
has suddenly disappeared to, which makes for an intriguing
subplot. Josie is a
believable character who readers can't help but root for;
she's intelligent, PANIC BUTTON is populated with a host of
characters who
are equally likable and intriguing, making this a series
that can't be missed!
Josie Giancola, owner of the Button Box shop, knows her
buttons. But when she comes into contact with a rare charm
string, she never imagines it will lead to murder...
Josie is approached at her shop to appraise a very rare
item—a complete charm string. In Victorian times,
girls strung buttons on long strings to make the charms.
Once the string reached 1,000 buttons—no two
alike—the legend was that the owner would meet her
beloved.
But the owner of this charm string is not looking for
love—she's desperate to donate the piece to a museum
and be rid of it. She believes the string is far from
charmed—it's cursed. When Josie finds the woman
strangled with the charm string, she doesn't know whether
the curse is real...but the killer certainly is.
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