Grub-And-Stakers Spin a Yarn

The latest from Charlotte McLeod, writing as Craig ( The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain ), is a kitsch whodunit that overflows with witticisms, puns and mistaken identities; steady tongue-in-cheek narration keeps it from becoming cloying. Casting the members of the Lobelia Falls Grub-and-Stakers Gardening and Roving Club, the drama begins in Miss Jane Fuzzywuzzy's Yarnery, where an executive at the local mincemeat factory is murdered. Popular novelist Osbert Monk joins in the police investigation. The ensuing shenanigans are hilarious and cleverly conceived--at one point the criminals mistakenly abduct Osbert's aunt Arethusa instead of the murder victim's daughter, Matilda McCorquindale; to outsmart them, Osbert decides that Matilda should attend her father's funeral and pretend to be Arethusa pretending to be Matilda. McLeod threads the suspense surely, and although the quirky character names grow cumbersome, she keeps her story energetic and merry. (Feb.)