Lavinia Temple

**Lavinia Temple** is one of the recurring characters in the Murder Most Unladylike series, who appears in Murder Most Unladylike, Jolly Foul Play and Top Marks for Murder. She is a Detective Society Assistant, along with Kitty Freebody and Beanie Martineau, and part of their dorm at Deepdean School for Girls. After Jolly Foul Play, she is roped in to their society, at Deepdean.

## Storylines

### Cream Buns and Crime

In Murder Most Unladylike, Lavinia is one of the main components of the Detective Society's first case (which according to them didn't count). Clementine was responsible for taking **Lavinia's** tie. This was revenge for Lavinia punching her in the stomach during hockey practice, which was Lavinia's revenge for Clementine saying that Lavinia came from a broken home.

### Jolly Foul Play

When Elizabeth Hurst, their Head Girl, is murdered, Lavinia works with the Detective Society to solve the case. She is most inclined to do this after one of the many secrets revealed, says that she is from a broken home. She accepts this as true, but is clearly sensitive about it.

### Top Marks for Murder

When Beanie witnesses a crime in Oakeshott Woods, Lavinia, once again, is roped into another Detective Society Case. In this, Daisy and Hazel are more open about being completely honest and working with anyone else, especially Daisy.

## Personality

Lavinia is described as ‘much given to fibbing’ and ‘fearfully disorganised’.  She is a petulant girl, and seems to be waspish all the time. Though she tries to hide it by being mean and sarcastic to everyone, she cares about her friends, and in Jolly Foul Play, Hazel mentioned that she and Lavinia try to take the punishments for the rest of the dorm. She is argumentative, and often gets into disagreements with others, particularly Clementine. She can be attentive and observant when she wants to, though.

## Relationships

### Dormmates

Daisy Wells, Hazel Wong, Beanie Martineau, and Kitty Freebody are Lavinia's dormmates and her good friends. Lavinia was the last of them to join the Detective Society, although she says she knew about it all along. Daisy was hesitant to let her join, but eventually gave in after some convincing from Hazel.

### Family

Lavinia is on good terms with her older brothers, Julian and Giles, but she says she hates her parents. She doesn't seem to have much of a relationship with her mother, and is angry with her father for marrying her step-mother, Patricia, who she loathes. Despite this, Patricia seems to love Lavinia a lot: she cheered for her during her tennis game and was very excited for her when she won an award in Top Marks for Murder.

### George Mukherjee

In Top Marks for Murder, the rest of Daisy and Hazel's dorm see a photo of Daisy, Hazel, Alexander and George together in London, and Kitty calls Alexander handsome, but Lavinia says that she thinks George is more handsome. Later, when she meets George Mukherjee in Death Sets Sail, she takes an immediate liking to him, discussing their similar views on politics. George later tells Hazel, "I'm going to marry that girl!". However, Robin Stevens mentioned on Tumblr that during the war, they drifted apart  due to Lavinia having issues maintaining long-term relationships after her parent's divorce, but they remained close friends.

## Appearance

Lavinia is described as having a mob of dark, stiff hair. She is angry looking and scowls a lot.

## Trivia

* She keeps an old doll hidden at the bottom of her trunk, and thinks nobody knows about it.
* She comes from a ‘broken home’ — she and her brothers hate their father’s second wife Patricia, who was originally their father’s secretary, and they don’t want to spend time with him.
* Her brother Giles, is in the army, and Julian is in America.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/redbreastedbird/730965228380127232/i-just-finished-body-in-the-blitz-and-i-loved?source=share
2. ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/redbreastedbird/734252853940617216/did-u-always-know-george-was-going-to-be-bi?source=share