I love a cozy mystery. Set in England, a group of pregnant women come together to solve a mystery that occurs during one of their prenatal classes. Is it silly and unlikely? Yes. But is it fun? Also yes.

"The Expectant Detectives" is a charming and humorous cozy mystery perfect for fans of character-driven stories with a dash of suspense. It's a refreshing read that will leave you smiling with its relatable characters, witty dialogue, and heartwarming exploration of friendship and motherhood.

Alice and Joe move to the Cotswolds after Alice gets pregnant. Alice, feeling isolated with the move, joins an antenatal group that meets above a local shop. After one momentous meeting where a baby is born, they discover the shop owner has been murdered! Alice and some of her new pregnant friends set out to solve the murder and find more mysteries along the way.

This was a fun cozy mystery! It's not often you find one with pregnant characters as the detectives--usually they've being kidnapped or held hostage, but here they're the stars! Honestly I don't know how any of them, all in their final weeks of pregnancy, have any energy to do detective work, but they manage somehow to power through the aches, pains, and exhaustion. I was also excited to return to the Cotswolds, since I really enjoyed the Agatha Raisin series. It's a great place to set a cozy mystery series, for sure!

I really enjoyed this book. If you've been pregnant before, it's easy to commiserate with Alice and her friends, and especially with Alice as she tries to make new friends as an adult while being pregnant. It's the hardest thing to do--we don't have the built in mechanism of being thrown together with a bunch of people your age in school. A great start to a new cozy mystery series, and I'm excited for the next one!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. This was a cozy mystery that had some good humour sprinkled throughout. This is the first book I have read by Kat Ailes. I felt the story was a bit long at times and could have been edited down so it wasn't as long. Overall I enjoyed it and I look forward to reading the next one in the series.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is about Alice and her partner Joe who move to a small town outside London as they are preparing for the arrival of their first child. Almost immediately after arriving, they are attending a prenatal class when a murder happens downstairs. They become suspects and Alice takes it upon herself (with the help of a few fellow pregnant class attendees) to solve the murder as she doesn't feel the police are capable of doing so. This was a fun read and I am interested to see what happens with the second book of the series which is coming out soon as well!

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy of The Expectant Detectives!

"Fresh, funny and heartfelt, The Expectant Detectives is Kat Ailes's charming debut mystery about a group of soon-to-be moms-turned-detectives."

I love cozy mystery books but I love it even more when the MCs are "unexpected" or "unusual". The Expectant Detectives had a fully-developed background story which helped a lot with building the mystery part of the book. It had a lot of twists and I had a good time playing detective along with the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. This book was such a fun read. It follows Alice and her boyfriend as they moved to the countryside to have their . While there, Alice with a group of soon to be Mom works too solved a murder. If you enjoy reading, fun mystery books then you will enjoy this book.

This was an intriguing mystery of an expecting couples' move out to the country and adapting to country life all while witnessing a murder and uncovering their new friends' secrets. Ending with the resolution of the current mystery, this leaves many questions unanswered so this story needs to continue.

I enjoyed this story with all the characters within. The main character was Alice.

Alice and her partner Joe have decided to move to a sleepy village in Penton. They want a house in the country instead of living in the city. She is expecting their first child. While going to a classes for expecting mothers a man is murdered. She and some others in the class decided to find out why the man was killed.

This was a fun story to read and listen to. It had twist and turns that were fun trying to guess. It had action, adventure and suspense throughout. It had quite a bit of giggles or laughs within. I had fun trying to solve the mystery within.

I received a complimentary audio copy via Netgalley. This is my honest unbiased opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the eARC! This was absolutely phenomenal. I am a sucker for fun mysteries - and a humor-filled mystery full of diverse, pregnant women? So refreshing. This was hilarious, engaging and immediately gripping, I absolutely loved it and I’m so glad that a second book is coming!

The mystery was compelling, the characters are intriguing, and the hijinks are hilarious. I absolutely loved this!

3.75 stars, this is a nice little cozy mystery set in the English countryside. The main character Alice is very pregnant and soon teams up with some other pregnant women to solve a mystery. I love cozies and this did seem cozy but more modern? young? I love the decision the author made to use a group of pregnant women. I love cozies because they are pretty predictable and low stakes which is what I need whenever I am in a reading slump. This was a perfect book for reading during a time when no other book sounded good to me. I have the second book as an ARC which I'm so excited to read!
Thank you netgalley and Minotaur books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was such a cute cozy mystery. I loved the premise of the group of ladies solving a murder. It was an enjoyable and quick read and will definitely be reading more by her.

I do love a good cozy mystery, and this seemed like such a cool spin on the basic premise. For the most part, I read this via ebook, but also attempted to read some of it in audiobook version. Kitty Kelly was the narrator, and she’s got a heavy accent that I struggled with, so I went back to the ebook version.

While this book sounded like it would hit all the right spots to make it a really great read, I ended up DNFing it at 53%. There were a few things that contributed to this being a DNF for me. The biggest one is that I never really found myself connecting with the story or the characters. It’s hard to read an entire book when you aren’t invested in anything about it, and once I found myself putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up, I knew it was time to DNF.

Other things that came up were minor, but they obviously were noticeable. The first one was the way that the main character, who is the only POV character, speaks about her pregnant body and compares it with other bodies. I don’t know if that technically counts as fatphobia, but if not, it’s fatphobia-adjacent. She constantly talks about waddling and being a blimp, and it was uncomfortable. There’s also a scene where a side character gives birth when there are no trained professionals (or EMTs, apparently) available, and this first-time mom just has a baby that pops out with no problems after about 5 minutes of labor.

Despite reading more than half of the book, I didn’t have any problem walking away from the rest of the story. It wasn’t even important to me to find out who was behind the murder. But this is just my own personal opinion, and the book has plenty of 4 and 5 star reviews, so take it with a grain of salt and form your own opinions!

This book was laugh out loud funny. When I read this I was going through a really rough time and grieving a loss and this book made me smile. Not much else could stop me from crying all the time but the time I spent with these characters was an escape when I very much needed it. I loved the characters, especially Helen the dog. I really hope that this is going to be a series because I want more of Alice and Helen!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for providing an ARC via Net Galley for review.

I went into this expecting a funny, fluffy mystery. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a humorous, fully-developed, mystery. The characters were fully developed, the backstory and background/setting was wonderfully thought through, and the dry humor throughout was very appreciated.

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a female-focused mystery.

PS: don’t bring Helen was one of my favorite parts 🤣

This review was posted on Goodreads on 04.18.24:

I was looking for a light, funny mystery to read and THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES delivered (pun intended) big time! It is, in a word, hysterical (especially if you've ever experienced the "joys" of pregnancy). I smiled and laughed (often out loud) through the whole novel. The book is upbeat, hilarious, and charming in an irreverent kind of way. I loved it.

The main characters in this story are especially fun. They're warm, supportive, and a little crazy (pregnancy hormones will do that to you). The women all have distinctive personalities and voices that make each of them stand out on the page while also blending together in a way that feels natural, but not boring. Alice is especially down-to-earth, which makes her both relatable and appealing.

As far as the mystery goes, THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES has a pretty straightforward storyline. There are enough twists to keep the reader engaged, but when revealed, the killer's identity isn't all that surprising. I wouldn't call the plot predictable, exactly; it's just not overly layered or complex.

For me, this novel provides the perfect balance of mystery, humor, and drama for a light, entertaining read. I've seen it defined as a cozy mystery, which it is in that it doesn't take itself too seriously, doesn't have any graphic scenes, and has a cheery vibe overall. Do be advised that it's R-rated for strong language and innuendo, two elements cozy mysteries usually do not include. Cheeky as it is, I thoroughly enjoyed THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES. I just discovered that it's the first in a planned series, which makes me supremely happy.

I got 15% into this book which was about 1.5 hours into it. I was sooo bored. I know cozy mysteries can take awhile, but I couldn't handle it anymore.

What a great read! I can see my patrons absolutely loving this! I want to share this book with everyone I know that loves a good mystery!

This is a cute cozy mystery about small-town living, fresh beginnings, relationships, and lots of secrets. I enjoyed the characters and the atmosphere! The plot had some nice twists that kept me on my toes, which I appreciated. I am looking forward to the next book!

This is a fun British detective book that includes unlikely detectives. A group of pregnant moms. Helen, the dog, steals the show and this was a fun cozy mystery with humor! I love that each of the characters is so unique and Alice is a bit of a mess but that makes the story funny and enjoyable!