{"id":25922,"date":"2026-03-07T20:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=25922"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:22:13","slug":"once-upon-a-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25922","title":{"rendered":"Once Upon a Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once Upon a Murder<\/em><\/a> (2024) Samantha Larsen (A Lady Librarian Mystery #2)<\/p>\n

\"OnceSet in England in ~1785<\/p>\n

Although Tiffany Woodall enjoys being the librarian for the Duchess of Beaufort, not all is good in her world, as she has barely seen Samir Lathrop since the events of the previous book, despite her feelings for him.<\/p>\n

For many years she\u2019d hated the very sight of it. The hope chest stood for everything that she had wanted in life but didn\u2019t have.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the duchess is hiring a governess to take over young Beau’s education.<\/p>\n

For pretty good reason.<\/p>\n

Beau gave her back her sword. \u201cNow, we must practice our sword fighting with each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cVery good,\u201d Tiffany said, raising the weapon to her face. \u201cEn garde!\u201d <\/p>\n

Neither she nor Beau had any practical knowledge of fencing, so they mostly hit each other\u2019s weapons and tried to make the other person drop their sword.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then she discovers a new murder, and there are other events to grab her attention.<\/p>\n

The door to the library opened, and Thomas burst into the room, out of breath. \u201cWhatever is the matter, Mother?\u201d <\/p>\n

The duchess held up the baby. \u201cMiss Woodall has acquired a baby.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like Mr. Ford, Thomas appeared to be so stunned that he couldn\u2019t move.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several things bordered the edge of ridiculous, but never went over the line, and some of the things that seemed ridiculous, were actually factual.<\/p>\n

Daniel Pool notes that between 1750\u20131850, \u201cthere were some 380 of these do-it-yourself divorces effected in rural England.\u201d Records note that the wife was led to the auction with a rope around her neck, like an animal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a hell of a thing.<\/p>\n

It was fun, and again I very much liked the historical details (such as that bit above) woven into the story.<\/p>\n

Characters<\/strong>: Miss Tiffany Woodall, Constable Samir Lathrop, Mr. Thomas Montague, Catharine Duchess of Beaufort, Beau \/ Lord Peregrine Francis Alfred David Erskine, Mr. Simeon Ford, Mrs. Ludmilla Phelps Coram Ford, Monsieur Bonne, Mrs. Wheatley, Miss Emily Jones, Mary, Miss Drummond, Doctor Hudson, Mrs. Balogh, Mrs. Evangeline Coram Lathrop, Mr. Bernard Coram, Mr. Zedekiah Coram, Mr. Frank Day, Mrs. Day, Jessica Day, Judge Phineas Faulkner, Sir Walter Abney, Miss Chandler, Caro Anstey, Luke Anstey, Mrs. Able, Widow Hadfield, Mr. Lawrence Hadfield, Tess the Duchess of Surrey, Miss Euphemia Drummond, Mrs. Ford, Farmer Coram, Farmer Thackeray, Mrs. Shirley, Mr. Giffin, Mr. Sanger, Nathaniel Lathrop, Priya Elizabeth Lathrop<\/p>\n

Cover design by Sarah Horgan<\/p>\n

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books<\/p>\n

Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once Upon a Murder (2024) Samantha Larsen (A Lady Librarian Mystery #2) Set in England in ~1785 Although Tiffany Woodall enjoys being the librarian for the Duchess of Beaufort, not all is good in her world, as she has barely seen Samir Lathrop since the events of the previous book, despite her feelings for him. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[194,30,292,204,33,8,26],"tags":[929,928],"class_list":["post-25922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-5-10","category-british","category-ebook","category-good","category-historical","category-mystery","category-romance","tag-lady-librarian","tag-samantha-larsen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-6K6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25919,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25919","url_meta":{"origin":25922,"position":0},"title":"A Novel Disguise","author":"Michelle","date":"March 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A Novel Disguise (2023) Samantha Larsen (A Lady Librarian Mystery #1) Set in England in ~1783 Miss Tiffany Woodall knows she is lucky that her half-brother has allowed her to remain to keep house for him, even if she didn't love or even like him. 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People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Guards-Guards-e1511049756730.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25805,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25805","url_meta":{"origin":25922,"position":5},"title":"Fatality in F","author":"Michelle","date":"February 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Fatality in F (2019) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #4) He\u2019d hybridized the rose himself and christened it the \u2018Sandra Sechrest\u2019 in honor of the librarian who\u2019d given him a biography of Pythagoras when he was seven and sparked his lifelong love of math. Gethsemane winced. 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