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To prevent Lobelia Fall from being turned into a subdivision, a citizen turns to cold-blooded murder Anyone growing up in Lobelia Falls is taught to learn the elegant, ancient, and occasionally deadly art of shooting with a bow and arrow. Practicing the craft, freelance secretary Dittany Henbit is strolling through the woods with her bow at her side when she meets a surveyor making surveys where he shouldn't. Dittany is giving him what-for when an arrow goes whizzing above her head. It is show more sharp enough to kill, and was not fired by accident, but Dittany wasn't the target. She and the surveyor find Mr. Architrave, the head of the water department, not far awaylying dead beneath the trees that he loved so much. Progress is coming to Lobelia Falls, and one resident will do anything to stop it. But in a town where every child can shoot, how can Dittany discover who drew the killer bow? show lessTags
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I first read The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain in 1987, but I had all but forgotten it when I came across a list of titles by Charlotte MacLeod / Alisa Craig on The Mysterious Press website. Our interbranch library system still had a copy, so I was able to borrow it & read it again.
Very cute, extremely silly and can be annoying if you don't really like this type of book. I found it very entertaining. I must quibble with the author, even though she was Canadian-born - I really don't think Canadians say "eh" as many times as Dittany and her gang do (at least I hope not). Glad I had a chance to read it again.
Very cute, extremely silly and can be annoying if you don't really like this type of book. I found it very entertaining. I must quibble with the author, even though she was Canadian-born - I really don't think Canadians say "eh" as many times as Dittany and her gang do (at least I hope not). Glad I had a chance to read it again.
Dittany Henbit is the owner of the Lobelia Falls Secretarial Service. She is also the go-to person for anything and everything that needs attention in Lobelia which can be anything from providing freezer space for all the cakes donated for the local fund raising bake sale to finding a person to run as a write-in candidate for the local City Council election. She's also the best friend of her neighbors' dog, Ethel. Actually Dittany is Ethel's only friend since even Ethel's owners hope Ethel will one day simply disappear. Through a series of events, Dittany is witness to a murder, and because of even more unusual events, Dittany is drawn into the solving the murder. I think Charlotte MacLeod (or Alisa Craig) is master of the cozy mystery show more genre. When reading her books, it never matters so much to me whodunit. I'm more interested in the entertaining characters, their odd names, and the funny antics they bring to the story. I'd recommend this first book in the Grub And Stakers series to cozy lovers as well as anyone who appreciates a light, entertaining fun read. show less
Charlotte MacLeod didn't write as many books for the series she wrote as 'Alisa Craig,' but it does mean more for her fans to read after they've finished the Sarah Kelling and Peter Shandy series. The Alisa Craig books are set in Canada instead of New England. The Grub-and-Stakers mysteries take place in the fictional town of Lobelia Falls. Don't miss the way Ms. MacLeod assures us that it's fictitious on the copyright page.
The Grub-and-Stakers full name is the Grub-and-Stake Gardening and Roving Club. How it got started is explained in chapter one. The equivalent club for Lobelia Falls men is the Male Archers' Target and Game Shooting Association. The fact that so many citizens of the town are archers is important because the murder show more victim is found with an arrow in his back.
Our heroine is Dittany Henbit, a short young woman with blondish hair and blue-green eyes. She lives in the house where her parents and Henbit grandparents lived before her. (Her widowed mother has remarried a traveling fashion eyewear salesman and is off with her Bert.)
Dittany makes her living as a one-woman secretarial service. Her best/worst customer is her neighbor, Arethusa Monk, a writer of Regency Romances. Chapter one's description of Arethusa's writing methods, which include allowing her cat, Rudolph, to snooze on the pages, makes it clear what Dittany has to go through to make sense of the manuscripts. In fact, Dittany is escaping the latest manuscript by walking up on the Enchanted Mountain, a nearby hill, when she sees a man about to destroy a patch of rare wildflowers. The victim is discovered soon after.
Before the killer is unmasked Dittany has to help foil a plot against the Enchanted Mountain, corruption in local politics, and a normally-sensible friend turned nervous wreck at the prospect of holding a golden wedding anniversary dinner for her carping in-laws. (Ladies, when you learn what Samantha's husband thinks will be suitable fare for 80 guests you may be pardoned for thinking a spot of justifiable homicide is in order.)
The Grub-and-Stakers pull together for a write-in campaign, the dinner, a bake sale, and various attempts to sabotage their efforts. Dittany's big house becomes the headquarters for it all. There's nothing like being scolded for not having much done the morning of the big dinner when one got to bed well after midnight dealing with sabotage, is there?
The attempt to wreck the bake sale is in chapter 14, the chapter that introduces Arethusa's nephew (who is not at all grateful to his aunt for getting his parents to name him Osbert instead of Ralph).
The dinner party is in chapter 16. Loved the way Dittany spiced it up! The in-laws' argument over Arethusa's books made me chuckle. How did they stay married for 50 years?
It isn't all work and excitement. There's romance, too. Dittany has two potential Princes Charming. Which one will she choose?
Dog lovers may enjoy the role played by Dittany's neighbors' dog, Ethel. Ethel is big and shaggy enough to be mistaken for a bear, which is quite handy if one should have villainy afoot.
The Grub-and-Staker series is probably the most screwball of MacLeods. Come on and share the laughs.
Peter Rauch is the artist for the cover showing the silhouette of a man sniffing a flower in his hand while an arrow speeds toward the target painted on his jacket.
The first hardcover edition has the Crime Club logo (a stylized man with a gun) above the words 'Crime Club' and 'Selection' on the spine where the publisher's name usually appears. Judging from my other MacLeod hardcovers, if your dustjacketless book has 'Doubleday' instead of the Crime Club logo, you have a book club edition. show less
The Grub-and-Stakers full name is the Grub-and-Stake Gardening and Roving Club. How it got started is explained in chapter one. The equivalent club for Lobelia Falls men is the Male Archers' Target and Game Shooting Association. The fact that so many citizens of the town are archers is important because the murder show more victim is found with an arrow in his back.
Our heroine is Dittany Henbit, a short young woman with blondish hair and blue-green eyes. She lives in the house where her parents and Henbit grandparents lived before her. (Her widowed mother has remarried a traveling fashion eyewear salesman and is off with her Bert.)
Dittany makes her living as a one-woman secretarial service. Her best/worst customer is her neighbor, Arethusa Monk, a writer of Regency Romances. Chapter one's description of Arethusa's writing methods, which include allowing her cat, Rudolph, to snooze on the pages, makes it clear what Dittany has to go through to make sense of the manuscripts. In fact, Dittany is escaping the latest manuscript by walking up on the Enchanted Mountain, a nearby hill, when she sees a man about to destroy a patch of rare wildflowers. The victim is discovered soon after.
Before the killer is unmasked Dittany has to help foil a plot against the Enchanted Mountain, corruption in local politics, and a normally-sensible friend turned nervous wreck at the prospect of holding a golden wedding anniversary dinner for her carping in-laws. (Ladies, when you learn what Samantha's husband thinks will be suitable fare for 80 guests you may be pardoned for thinking a spot of justifiable homicide is in order.)
The Grub-and-Stakers pull together for a write-in campaign, the dinner, a bake sale, and various attempts to sabotage their efforts. Dittany's big house becomes the headquarters for it all. There's nothing like being scolded for not having much done the morning of the big dinner when one got to bed well after midnight dealing with sabotage, is there?
The attempt to wreck the bake sale is in chapter 14, the chapter that introduces Arethusa's nephew (who is not at all grateful to his aunt for getting his parents to name him Osbert instead of Ralph).
The dinner party is in chapter 16. Loved the way Dittany spiced it up! The in-laws' argument over Arethusa's books made me chuckle. How did they stay married for 50 years?
It isn't all work and excitement. There's romance, too. Dittany has two potential Princes Charming. Which one will she choose?
Dog lovers may enjoy the role played by Dittany's neighbors' dog, Ethel. Ethel is big and shaggy enough to be mistaken for a bear, which is quite handy if one should have villainy afoot.
The Grub-and-Staker series is probably the most screwball of MacLeods. Come on and share the laughs.
Peter Rauch is the artist for the cover showing the silhouette of a man sniffing a flower in his hand while an arrow speeds toward the target painted on his jacket.
The first hardcover edition has the Crime Club logo (a stylized man with a gun) above the words 'Crime Club' and 'Selection' on the spine where the publisher's name usually appears. Judging from my other MacLeod hardcovers, if your dustjacketless book has 'Doubleday' instead of the Crime Club logo, you have a book club edition. show less
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Cozy Mystery List
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Author Information
60+ Works 12,172 Members
Charlotte MacLeod was born in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada on November 12, 1922. She immigrated to the United States in 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1951. She attended the School of Practical Art, now the Art Institute of Boston. She was a staff artist and copywriter at Stop and Shop supermarkets from 1945 to 1952. She also worked at show more N.H. Miller & Co. advertising firm from 1952 to 1982 starting as a copy chief and ending up as a Vice President. She wrote two series under her own name, a Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn Mystery series and the Peter Shandy Mystery series. She also wrote two series under the pseudonym Alisa Craig, the Madoc and Janet Rhys Mystery series and the Grub-and-Stakers series. She also wrote Had She But Known: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart and a dozen juvenile books. She won five American Mystery awards and a Nero Wolfe award. She edited the anthologies Mistletoe Mysteries and Christmas Stalkings. She is the co-founder and past president of the American Crime Writers League. She died on January 14, 2005 at the age of 82. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain
- Original publication date
- 1981
- People/Characters
- Dittany Henbit (Grub-and-Staker, owns Henbit Secretarial Service); Ethel (the Binkles' dog); Benjamin Frankland (Lobelia Falls Water Department employee); Mr John Architrave (head, Lobelia Falls Water Department); Sergeant Donald MacVicar (chief, Lobelia Falls Police); Mrs MacVicar (a Grub-and-Staker, Donald's wife) (show all 38); Caroline Pitz (Grub-and-Staker); Ellie Despard (Grub-and-Staker, mother of Petey); Samantha Burberry (Grub-and-Staker legislative comm. chairman); Zilla Trott (widow of Michael, a Grub-and-Staker); Therese Boulanger (president, Grub-and-Stakers); Hazel Busch Munson (a Grub-and-Staker); Roger Munson (Hazel's husband); Jim Streph (architect and good friend of the Munsons); Margery Streph (Jim's wife and good friend of the Munsons); Minerva Oakes (widow, Grub-and-Staker, Zilla's good friend); Andrew McNaster ('Andy McNasty' in construction & an inn); Arethusa Monk (writes regency romances, Grub-and-Staker); Mrs Poppy (house and office cleaner); Charlie (a shyster lawyer from Scottsbeck); Sam Wallaby (owns the liquor store in Lobelia Falls); Joshua Burberry (college professor, Samantha's husband); Mr Poppy; Jane Binkle (Dittany's next-door neighbor); Henry Binkle (Jane's husband, they own a bookshop); Mr Gumpert (owns Lobelia Fall's Ye Village Stationer); Dot Coskoff (a Grub-and-Staker); Ormerod Burlson (Sergeant MacVicar's left-hand man); Maude Burlson (Omerod's wife); Osbert Reginald Monk (Arethusa's nephew); Sam Pitz; Bill Coskoff (Dot's husband); Professor Burberry (Joshua's father); Mrs Mildred Burberry (Joshua's mother); Patrolman Bob; Patrolman Ray; Burton Ford; Petunia ('Petsy', Mrs Poppy's niece)
- Important places
- Lobelia Falls, Lobelia County, Ontario, Canada (fictional)
- Dedication
- For the Three Graces:
Grace, Grace, and, of course, Grace - First words
- 'Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,' mused Dittany Henbit, spelling out the words in her mind as was her habit and no doubt getting at least one of them wrong as at least Aprilles had passed since her eighth-grade teac... (show all)her has made her do that paper on Chaucer.
- Quotations
- Arethusa, who wrote strangely popular paperback novels of the 'Od's bodikins, Sir Percy' school was the best and the worst of clients, depending on whether it was worktime or paytime. Ten minutes ago, realizing that at least ... (show all)a hundred pages of egads and forsooths stood between her and any hope of a check, Dittany had shoved back her chair and headed for the great outdoors.
A person could stand only so much. One more impeccable Mechlin lace frill falling negligently over one more strong, shapely hand taking one more pinch of snuff from one more chased silver snuffbox with one more exquisitely limned ivory miniature of the beauteous but stupid Lady Ermintrude set into the lid, and Dittany would have been driven to od Sir Percy's bodikins once and for all. (chapter 1)
Since her appetite was temporarily spoiled anyway, she might as well get on with Arethusa's inevitable dueling scene.
Sir Percy tensed the muscles of his finely molded jaw. He was about to pink that rotter Baron Black... (show all)avise smack in the right radial extensor and get blood all over his ruffles. Instead, Dittany was astonished to find herself rattling out a scene in which one Andrew McNaster got run plunk through the snuffbox with lethal effect. Maybe she'd better get some solid food inside her, at that. (chapter 4)
Dittany's thoughts about the interview were pretty slim also. She did know they'd have to be awfully careful not to mention McNaster's name in any way, shape, or form. If he found so much as a whisper of an excuse he'd have t... (show all)hat blot on the legal escutcheon slap them with a charge of slander or whatever it was when you accused somebody of doing something rotten before he'd actually got the chance to pull it off. (chapter 9)
Friday morning Dittany rushed out for a fast trip to the shopping mall, only to find a strange car blocking her driveway. There was no earthly reason for it to be there since Applewood Avenue was otherwise empty on both sides... (show all), so she had to conclude this was another deliberate annoyance.
Very well, she was annoyed. 'Come on, Ethel,' she called. 'Let's find a big, sloppy mud puddle and go wading.'
While Ethel was getting her paws welled mired, Dittany scattered dog biscuit all over the hood and the top of the car. It happened to be a white one, so the resultant pattern of plate-sized pawprints showed up nicely. (chapter 13)
They heard a gasp that sounded like 'Gadzooks' and realized that Arethusa was still among the party. The three of them stormed the summit, to find Osbert with a large flashlight surveying what appeared to be the leftovers fr... (show all)om a Roman orgy of the post-Neronian period. (chapter 15) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And thus (as Chaucer and Miss MacWilliams might have wound up the tale) with alle blisse and melodye, hath Osbert Monk y-wedded Dittany.
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