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!

Book Summary

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.