A Poetic Pox - Lady librarian series #3

 

A Poetic Pox is the third book in the Lady Librarian historical cozy mystery series by Samantha Larsen. Released 22nd July 2025 by Dreamscape Media.

This is a charming historical cozy with an appealing protagonist who employs creative and intelligent solutions to counteract some of the harsher realities of Regency history (women often lived lives of tenuous and terrifying insecurity). She's smart and generally honest and clever as well, and easy to relate to. Although she's sworn off murder and investigation after the last couple of times, she's now stumbled over the body of a servant at the estate of the former paramour of her patroness and employer, The Duchess of Beaufort and so much once again use her intellect and wiles to sort out what really happened.

The book is well written and the author has a firm grasp on the nuts and bolts of plot, setting, and characterization. It's a light cozy with a strong romance subplot and a surprising amount of effective humor. It's a bookish book, and there are book titles and period book/library trivia and title-dropping throughout. Readers will certainly find this book slower in pace and plotting than the last 2 books in the series and this one is overflowing with dirty diapers and other biological realities of having responsibility for a newborn.

Happily, the author mostly ignores the more rigid realities of race, parentage, and class which would have otherwise precluded many of the interactions and relationships in the book. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours 47 minutes and is capably read by series narrator Marni Penning. She has a well modulated classically trained alto voice and does a good job with a number of disparate accents of both sexes and a range of ages. It's easy to keep the characters separate and the dialogue flows smoothly. 

Four stars. This would make an appealing binge/buddy read, as well as a good choice for public library acquisition. It appears that currently the book is only available in audio format; the previous 2 installments are also available in hardcover and ebook formats (from Crooked Lane). 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.