Buttons and Bones by Monica Ferris

Betsy is headed to the country with her friends, the Larsons, to visit their newly purchased cabin located on one of the many lakes in Minnesota. While new to the Larsons, the cabin dates back to well before World War II. Over the course of several weekends, the Larsons had been working hard to get their cabin back into shape. In fact, the weekend Betsy comes to visit, they all work together to pull up the old carpet and linoleum. All are surprised to see a trapdoor hidden underneath. They open the door to investigate and discover a body. More accurately, they find a skeleton of someone who had been long dead. Over the course of the story, Betsy works with her friend Jill to try and discover who the bones belong to, how they ended up in the Larson’s cabin, and who the killer is.

While this is the 14th book in Monica Ferris’s Needlecraft Mystery Series, the book can stand on its own, without need for knowledge of the previous titles. Recommended for those who like their mysteries without gore and violence.