VOLUME ONE — VOLUME FOUR
The Miss Marigold Mysteries.
Four small scandals, one tireless retired librarian, and a village that absolutely cannot be trusted. Best read by lamplight, with a cup of something hot and an alibi at the ready.
VOLUME IV · NEWEST MYSTERY
The Teapot Treason
A silver tea strainer & a poisoned petunia bed.
When the town's most notorious gossip is found face-down in Lady Agatha's prize-winning petunias — with a silver tea strainer in her pocket — amateur sleuth and retired librarian Miss Marigold realizes her peaceful retirement is officially over.
THE COMPLETE SERIES
Volume III · 1983
A Cozy Sort of Corpse
Reclusive widow Lady Estella Rookery is found in her conservatory at twilight, her knitting needles arranged in a manner the coroner describes — with admirable understatement — as 'most peculiar'. Miss Marigold inherits the case along with the cat, the cottage, and a notebook of secrets.
SETTING
VICTIM
WEAPON
Rookery Hall conservatory
Lady Estella Rookery
A pair of tortoiseshell knitting needles
Volume II · 1982
Murder at the Marmalade Fête
Oakhaven's annual preserves competition is the social event of the year — until head judge Mrs. Honoria Twigg collapses face-first into a jar of prize-winning quince. Was it the Seville oranges? The simmering rivalry? Or something rather more sinister stirred into the pectin?
SETTING
VICTIM
WEAPON
The village green, Oakhaven Summer Fête
Mrs. Honoria Twigg, head judge
Tainted quince marmalade
Volume I · 1981
The Vicar's Last Vespers
When the beloved choirmaster of St. Wilfred's disappears between the second and third verse of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful', Miss Marigold suspects the organ pipes are hiding rather more than dust. A debut mystery of hymnals, hush-money, and one very inconvenient vestry cupboard.
SETTING
VICTIM
WEAPON
St. Wilfred's Church, Oakhaven
Mr. Albert Pemberton, choirmaster
Brass candlestick (or possibly the organ stop)
"They may be read in any order, of course — though chronology does spare one a great deal of unnecessary suspicion."
— BEATRICE PLUM, IN A LETTER TO HER EDITOR, 1984