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. ( )

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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )