This book just felt so much longer than it needed to be and it had too much going on. I was interested at first but I started to lose that interest as it went on. I finally gave up at 70% and just skimmed the ending. I like the writing enough and think this could’ve been a fun mystery if it wasn’t so long.

Who doesn’t love a lighthearted murder mystery? The plot and writing style felt a bit silly at times, but it was all in good fun. I liked the banter between the characters and the concept was pretty fun. It lost my attention a little bit in the middle, but then the plot picked back up. A fun ride!

Wow this book was so good! It’s a testament to how crazy life has been because I could have sat down and read it all at once, that’s how invested I was in this story. It made me laugh and it made me cry I love how there are so many elements to this story; pregnancy, a new town, a commune, a lovably wild dog, and new group of unexpected friends, and lots and lotssss of secrets.

As a mother of 2 I personally loved all the realities of being pregnant, the panic of birth and parenthood, but also recognizing that pregnant is not a disability and she can still snoop or do whatever she feels up to. I feel like Alice is not a typical cozy sleuth in that she’s not running a business or super on top of everything. She is wonderfully messy and naive, but smart and brave and a joy to follow. I really felt seen in this character.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Expectant Detectives is a cozy mystery about a woman who is 8 months pregnant that moves to a small town. During one of her pre birth classes a man is murdered on the main floor of the building. Her and her friends from the class decide to investigate to see if they can solve it before their babies come.

This was a perfect blend of funny and mystery. Imagining these heavily pregnant women running around trying to solve a murder had several laugh out loud moments. There is also a dog who gets into no good wherever she goes prompting many texts to end in "don't bring Helen".

Recommended for cozy mystery fans that have several laugh out loud moments. I did not guess the ending until it happened!

I love, love, love cozy mysteries and this book description sounded so fun. And I was not wrong! The Expectant Detectives is very funny, with a great mystery to boot. I appreciated Alice and Poppy's friendship the most. I also enjoyed how real Alice was. It wouldn't be a cozy mystery without quirky characters. Huge thanks to the publisher for the Netgalley approval.

BOOK REVIEW: The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
Series: Expectant Detectives Mysteries | Book 1
2024 Publication Date: January 9

⭐️⭐️⭐️

T.I.M.E. Most Anticipated Books Of 2024

♡ T.I.M.E. TIP: Recommend reading this series in order... Start with Book 1... And enjoy!... ✨😎✨

Pages: 373
Genre: Thriller Books
Sub-Genre: Cozy Mystery
Time Period: Contemporary
Location: Cotswolds | England
Publisher: St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books

BOOK QUOTE:
"Welcome to the world, small one... It's a shitshow. But it might just get better now you're here..." — The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes

--------------------

All my book reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at thisismyeverybody.com/blog/what-book-should-i-read

♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Thank you to @minotaur_books for an eARC! All thoughts are my own.

Alice and Joe move to a quiet town in the English countryside late in Alice’s pregnancy. They want to raise their child outside of London where they’ll have more space and hopefully some community.

At their first prenatal class, one of the class members goes into early labor and the shopkeeper is found dead. Because it’s a cozy mystery, throw in a local commune, a decade old missing person, some out of control dogs, and some very pregnant amateur investigators.

I absolutely love cozy mysteries, and this was a really fun debut. I laughed every time a character told Alice “don’t bring Helen!” (her sweet but out of control dog). I loved how Helen’s antics played into the story and helped ultimately find a crucial clue.

I don’t have any kids, but I have talked to enough of my friends who are moms to know pregnancy is not all rainbows and sunshine. I really appreciated how authentic Alice felt as a character as she struggled with not feeling ready to be a mom and worry over things like why she wasn’t “nesting” and instead wanted to solve a murder.

If you enjoy cozies, give this one a try! I’m looking forward to the next book in the series and revisiting the small town and all its eccentric inhabitants.

This was a really fun read. I chuckled throughout and it kept me surprisingly contemplative to be so lighthearted. It did drag slightly at times but overall was very solid. I definitely recommend for fans of Finlay Donovan and Agatha Christie.

TW: pregnancy, paternity journey, poisoning, c*lts, and more

Alice is eight months pregnant and she and boyfriend, Joe, have decided that London isn’t the best place to raise a child so they have moved to the small town of Penton, a place Alice describes as ‘hippy posh’. The first night there, they have signed up for a prenatal ‘crash course’, partly to meet new people but mostly because both Alice and Joe have been kind of avoiding preparing for the whole birthing experience.

The course has been going fine, well, except for all the graphic descriptions of childbirth, but there are other couples, most of whom seem friendly and just as aghast at the birthing details as Alice and Joe. But suddenly things go way off script. First, one of the other expectant mothers goes into labour and Alice finds herself pulled into help and second, the man who owns the store downstairs is found murdered.

When the wife of Poppy, one of the other expectant mothers, becomes the main suspect, she suggests she and Alice do their own investigation. They enlist the aid of some of the other women and soon find themselves immersed not only in this recent murder but two suspicious occurrences. from many years ago of a nearby commune..

The Expectant Detectives is Kat Ailes’ debut cozy mystery novel and what a fun and funny debut it is. The characters are all mostly likeable especially Alice who seems to have few filters. She is insecure and undiplomatic, not the best characteristics for an amateur detective, but she is also hilarious. But I think my favourite (and even funnier) characters are her and Poppy’s dogs, the irrepressible Helen, the always randy Ronnie and the majestic, and ever embarrassed at the antics of the other two, Sultan.I don’t know if this is the start of a new series but but I sure hope so because I don’t think I’ve ever laughed out loud at another mystery as did with this book.

Oh, and the mystery is pretty good too.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

Alice and Joe are expecting a baby and decided to move from London to the Cotswolds to raise the baby in a smaller village. And it turns out that they have moved to a sleepy village with a "hippie, dippy" commune. They start prenatal classes and meet some other expectant families. At the second meeting, one of the other mothers ends up giving birth and a body is discovered at the nature store on the first floor of their meeting location.

This book was hysterical!! Helen is a riot! All of the main characters are fantastically different and totally believable and easy to root for in their "detectoring"! The pace was spot on and I can't wait for the next in the series. Very well done!!

A funny cozy mystery taking place in the English countryside. Alice and her partner are expecting their first child, and while attending their first parenting class someone is murdered. I liked the personalities of all the expectant mothers and the ending was a bit of a surprise for me. It was a little bit of a slower read for me as the foundation of the story was being laid out, but about halfway through the hijinks picked up and so did the plot’s intensity. 3.5 stars for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was thoroughly delighted by this charming, silly, modern whodunit. Its a lighthearted murder mystery (what a phrase!) with wonderful warmth, an intrepid gang of pregnant amateur sleuths, and great side characters.

Having recently attended a sound bath myself, I positively chortled at the depiction of the gong baths and other hippie-adjacent activities. I loved Alice and her friends, and I loved how they got tot he bottom of this mystery.

I was so surprised by this creative take on a cozy mystery... well done!

Thanks so much for the advance copy... this is one I will recommend to others, and I'm super excited for the second book!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

I received an email suggesting I would like this because I enjoy the Finlay Donovan series. They were absolutely correct! This was such a fun mystery. Alice is pregnant and close to her due date. She and her partner, Joe, move from London to the countryside. But instead of the bucolic scene where they expected to raise their child, they stumble across a murder. And Alice joins with other pregnant women to try to figure out whodunnit.

I so appreciated the hilarious, snarky tone of Alice's first person point of view. I would absolutely want to be her friend. The book made me laugh out loud, roll my eyes, and feel all the feels. Add in her ridiculous dog, Helen, and the equally absurd antics of her new small town, and reading this was such a delight.

I will be looking forward to more from Kat Ailes after such an excellent debut.

I thought this book was hilarious. I enjoyed the mystery as well. The only issues I had and this is my own fault is that since I’m not British there were quite a bit of phrases and references that were unfamiliar to me. I wasn’t sure if me not knowing some of the references made me miss parts of the plot. I did like the cult in the countryside and each of the expectant characters. I will be reading other books in the series for sure

This book is truly quite unique! It’s so entertaining! The humor is great! Alice is a hot mess and yes, she’s very aware of that! There’s so much to like about this book - expectant women investigating a murder, quirky, hippie side characters, humor, a commune, a scene stealing dog (Helen is fantastic!), and, of course, murder! There is British spelling, slang and terminology that may be off-putting to some people, but in my opinion it’s not a big deal - the story is set in England after all and shouldn’t be Americanized. A very enjoyable debut!

Alice and Joe move out of London shortly before the birth of their baby. They are attending a local prenatal class in their new village when the shop owner downstairs is murdered while one of the women in the class happens to be giving birth upstairs. Alice teams up with some of the other pregnant women (and a just-gave-birth-in-prenatal-class new mom) to dig deeper into the mystery. I enjoyed this. There was a lot going on, but I liked the writing and the characters. Helen, the wayward dog, was my favorite. 4 stars.

Alice and Joe move to the small village of Penton from London to await the birth of their son. They want to leave the hustle and bustle of London for something more serene to raise a child in. Joe decides on Penton and they arrive just in time for a birth in their birthing class and a murder. So much for quiet. Alice and her fellow expecting mothers decide to try and find out who the killer was. It takes them to a commune outside of town where the past has a lot of secrets, to their own husbands and the secrets they keep. Lots of very witty dialogue, especially love it because there are so many fun British terms and their dialect is so much more creative.

This is pure, fun escapism. I look forward to more of their adventures.

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an advance copy for review.

★ ★ ★ .5

check TWs

Note: I try my hardest to not include spoilers in my reviews. However, spoilers and how you define a spoiler is subjective. Proceed with caution.

*A special thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

.
.
.
.
.

This was honestly such a fun read. I had such a hard time putting it down.

It was filled with quirky characters and funny moments that actually had me laughing out loud at times. I really needed something like this book. I read two fantasy books with vast amounts of world building back-to-back and I just needed something chill.

It’s such an interesting way to write a mystery. There’s the suspense, but it’s juxtaposed by comedy and… Helen. It gave off Stephanie Plum vibes (according to my mom, who I talked about it with) and Bridget Jones (according to me).

My biggest issues were that the book was way too long. At a certain point, it felt repetitive. And lord knows, I hate fourth wall breaks and there were a few— though mostly at the beginning. Alice was also annoying at times and I could not STAND Joe. He gave me the ick and I was actually rooting for Alice to kick him to the curb— sorry.

Overall, I will absolutely read the next one. It was the perfect dose of mystery and comedy and I need more Helen in my life, to be honest.

The Expectant Detectives was an unexpected delight! Alice and Joe are having a baby and decide to leave London for the Cotswolds. Hoping for a quiet last few weeks of pregnancy, they are shocked when a woman in their prenatal class as her baby there in class and the shop owner the class is held mysteriously dies, both on the same night. Soon Alice, her mischevious dog (Helen), and her heavily pregnant new friends are trying to solve the secrets of their sleepy town while battling Braxton Hicks and insomnia and food cravings.
I love that the author put so much relatable humor into the details of late pregnancy. As someone who had all my babies at my due date or beyond it, I was very impressed by Alice's motivation to solve this case! I could hardly walk!
This was a really fun cozy mystery and I'm looking forward to more!

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Expectant Detectives is a new style of Cozy Mystery that I have certainly never read before. I found it to be charming and a heck of a lot of fun; pure enjoyment.

I love Cozy Mysteries that feature an MC and their friend group trying to solve a local mystery. A few favorites, to be noted for example, from recent years would be The Thursday Murder Club, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and The Marlow Murder Club.

All three of these books have one important thing in common, the MCs are older than we would typically find in the Mystery genre. These older, dare we call them elderly, characters are quirky, fun and provide a bit of a different perspective than the norm.

In The Expectant Detectives, Kat Ailes uses a very similar set-up to other Cozies, but her intrepid group of amateur sleuths are pregnant women, not elderly individuals.

In this story, we meet and follow, Alice. She and her boyfriend, Joe, are expecting their first child. Although not planned, they're both excited about the pregnancy and looking forward to the next steps in their relationship. Thinking their city-located flat will be too small for their growing family, they decide to move to the sleepy village of Penton. They just feel like it would be a more desirable place to raise a child. Safer and all that...

That is until a dead body is discovered at a prenatal class they have joined. They can't believe it. This is not what they thought village life would be like. Now everyone in attendance at the class is a suspect, including Alice and Joe. Together with a few of the other pregnant women, Alice begins looking into the murder herself. She needs to clear their names before this baby arrives.

Side note, Alice has a glorious dog, Helen, who could easily turn out to be my favorite character of the year. I just adored her and the joy she brought to the narrative.

I was really entertained by this story. The audiobook was so well done, the narration so on-point with the humor that it had me laughing out loud numerous times. I thought Ailes set-up for this story was creative and truly unlike anything I've read before. Alice has a dry, witty sense of humor that worked well for me. She tells it like it is. She's pretty blunt about her pregnancy and the way it is changing/affecting her body.

I also liked that it wasn't just Alice that was pregnant, she had her new friends to share the experience with, as well as to help her do some first-rate investigating.

For me, I wouldn't say the initial murder was totally compelling. It didn't even make sense to me at first how they were so confident it was a murder, like it almost felt like it could have been an accident or something. Nevertheless, I was willing to go on that journey with the characters because I was enjoying them so much. After a while, the more the ladies dug in, the more secrets and intrigue they revealed, then I was hooked.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut Mystery. It had just the right amount of humor and fun, mixed in with the actual mystery. I think the longer this series goes on, the more attached that I'm going to get to these characters and this village as well.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm definitely looking forward to more from Kat Ailes!