A Staged Death Book Tour and Character Interview

A staged Death book tour is through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and includes a giveaway and a fun character interview. Share, follow, comment, pick your next stop on the tour with the schedule at the end.

Book Details

A Staged Death: Lady Librarian Mysteries
by Samantha Larsen

A Staged Death is responsible for my latest book hangover, keeping me up to the early morning hours. It was worth every minute. Ms. Larsen is a fabulous storyteller, and I eagerly await each new installment of this series. I am excited to say this is the 1st book to receive my Paradise rating this year, landing it on my Best Reads List for 2026.
~Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

Dramatics abound in A STAGED DEATH where complex family relations make for an ingeniously plotted mystery.
~Cozy Up With Kathy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: fans of historical mysteries should not miss out on this series! I’ve read all the books so far in this series and they are all so great.
~Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books

5-STAR
A Staged Death is a highly entertaining historical mystery in the Georgian Era. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the first page to the last.
~Novels Alive

If you enjoy historical cozy mysteries, then I recommend you pick up A Stage Murder. I know I will be watching for other books in this series. 4 Stars:
~Carla Loves To Read

A Staged Death: Lady Librarian Mysteries by Samantha Larsen.This was a joyful book – with the perfect blend of history, mystery and cozy vibes. I was so excited to get to listen to this audiobook. This is a new to me author, and she can move into my TBR anytime.
~Connie’s History Classroom

About A Staged Death

A Staged Death: Lady Librarian Mysteries
Historical Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – 1787, Bath.
Publisher: Dreamscape First
Audible.com Release Date: March 31, 2026
Listening Length: 8 hours and 30 minutes
Author: Samantha Larsen
Narrator: Marni Penning
ASIN: B0GCGRPKHW

A cozy historical mystery set in the 18th century—perfect for Bridgerton fans!

1787, Bath. Mrs. Tiffany Lathrop has catalogued the entire library at Astwell Palace and is feeling rather dull when Mr. Thomas Montague invites her and her husband Samir to visit Bath. Thomas begs Tiffany to help reconcile his mother Catharine, the Marchioness of Harwood, on his engagement to the famous actress Miss Rosalyn Arden—a beautiful young woman with bright red curls and eyes of mismatched color.

Eager to see his beloved, Thomas stops at the Theatre Royal with Tiffany and they discover a dead body wearing a red wig in Rosalyn’s dressing room. The body is that of Miss Julia Shakespeare, Rosalyn’s understudy and the person who has been blackmailing members of the acting company. Not only are the actors behaving suspiciously, but so are Rosalyn’s newly reconciled relatives that cast her off nine years before when she jilted Sir Frederick Bingham, who then married her younger sister.

If all the world is a stage, then someone acting innocent must be the murderer. Can Tiffany solve the mystery before the final curtain?

Character Guest Post: Cross-Dressing Women in Shakespeare’s Plays

By Miss Rosalyn Arden (Samantha Larsen)

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts…

My name is Miss Rosalyn Arden and I am an eighteenth-century actress. In my case, I
would write, “one woman in her prime plays many parts…including male ones.” Some of
William Shakespeare’s best roles were played by women pretending to be men. But in
Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616) young males and men played all parts. So, it was a teenage boy
pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. Perhaps this was why Shakespeare wrote so
many roles where women pretend to be men. It wasn’t until a royal warrant in 1662 that women
were allowed on English stages.
My favorite female cross-dressing male role is in The Merchant of Venice. I play Portia
and I dress up like a lawyer with Nerissa to save Antonio. He borrowed money for Bassanio to
court me. Antonio offered a pound of his flesh for security. He defaults on the loan and the
moneylender Shylock wants his pound of flesh. I give the best speech in the play:
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
The next role is my namesake, Rosalind. In As You Like It, she is banished from court and
pretends to be a young man named Ganymede as she goes through the forest with her cousin
Celia. There Rosalind is reunited with Orlando, the man she loves. He, however, thinks that she
is Ganymede. Rosalind/Ganymede offers to pretend to be Rosalind for Orlando so that he can
learn what women like. I shan’t tell you the ending, but there is also a vicious lioness and a snake
in the forest. Cue the drama!
Twelfth Night is a delight. Viola masquerades as Cesario so that she can be close to Duke
Orsino that she is in love with. Unfortunately, he is courting another woman. But as the duke
says, “If music be the food of love, play on.”

Then there is poor Innogen in Cymbeline. Her father is King Cymbeline of Britian and he
banishes her husband Posthumous. They swear their fidelity to each other and there are a lot of
misunderstandings, treason plots, and cross-dressing—Innogen pretends to be Fidele.
Lastly, who could forget Julia who pretends to be Sebastian in The Two Gentlemen of
Verona? Alas, the two gentlemen from Verona, Proteus and Valentine, both fall in love with
Silvia. Silvia loves Valentine, which is lucky, because Proteus has already sworn his love to Julia
and given her his ring. There are outlaws, brave rescue attempts, and a double wedding at the
end.
But the bard is dead and so is my understudy. She was found strangled in my dressing
room. In A Staged Death, Lady Librarian, Mrs. Tiffany Lathrop, dresses as a man to help
investigate the murder with her husband. If all the world is a stage, then someone acting innocent
must be the murderer. Can Tiffany solve the mystery before the final curtain? You’ll have to read
it and see.

About Samantha Larsen

Samantha Hastings met her husband in a turkey sandwich line. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she spends most of her time reading, having tea parties, and chauffeuring her four kids. She teaches World Literature at Brigham Young University. Her young adult fiction books are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections, and her historical romances are published around the world. She also writes murder mysteries under Samantha Larsen that Publisher’s Weekly called “wildly enjoyable.”