Dittany Henbit is a cheeky spinster who appreciates hermits. Sergeant MacVicars polices close-knit Lobelia Falls, where every citizen is an archery addict. Aided by author Arethusa Monk, the crew find out who shish-kebobbed the Water Works man, run a campaign, plan a 25th anniversary party, and inhale unwholesome amounts of Fig Newtons.

The Grub-and-Stakers, a gardening club in small town Ontario, receive a bequest to run The Aralia Polyphema Architrave Museum. But someone pushes their new curator off the roof. Dittany Henbit Monk and her Western-writer husband first solve an important clue - a bride quilt embroidered with little multi-colored bees.

The Grub and Stakers Gardening and Roving Club act out the Robert Service poem about Dangerous Dan McGrew to win a prize, but murder intervenes. Dittany Henbit Monk and her crew of sleuths are on the case.

Twin-toting Dittany Monk, her Western-writer husband Osbert, and the Grub and Stake Gardening and Roving Club are snarled in another murder. Miss Jane Fuzzywuzzy's Yarnery is the wildest, woolliest place in Lobelia Falls, Ontario. Expecting cousins from England, Miss Jane finds the corpse of a local mincemeat magnate cluttering her clean sidewalk.

When the ghost of murdered mule driver Hiram Jellaby appears in the kitchen of widow Zilla Trott's house, Sergeant McVicar investigates the century-old crime. Reprint.