I read this one and the first one in less than a week. Great cozy mystery with unlikely detectives. I liked this one a lot more than the first. I can't wait to see where the rest of this series goes!

Title: Dead Tired

Although the book had witty,self-deprecating humor and double murder, the odd friendships formed due to common interests or areas, like babies or a sidewalk, did not appeal to me. They added a weird dynamic that made me dislike the main character even more. However, the writer's style was topnotch - very fluid, and at times, rambling, though comical. The humorous side stories became awkward and page filler, causing me to take breaks to refocus or skim over pages. A little restraint would have helped me like it more. It felt like bringing all your weapons to a fight but not being able to use any because your hands are full.

Kat Ailes has the ability to make me laugh incredibly hard, while also building suspense and mystery in unexpected ways. Dead Tired was a delight, just as The Expectant Detectives was.

Alice is a hilarious, relatable protagonist. I love the way her mind works. Hen, Ailsa, and Poppy are the best sidekicks. I appreciate how distinct their personalities are, they feel like full characters. Just as in book 1, the partners were great supporting characters, and did not detract from the main group of women. Helen and Ronnie, the dogs, added a huge amount of humor!

On top of the mystery, this book dealt with motherhood and postpartum. I was moved by the perspective on postpartum depression and the loss of bodily autonomy in motherhood.

I felt that this mystery was slightly less compelling than the first one (the lack of family connection to Alice made this one have different stakes). However, it was creative, emotional, and kept me guessing. The environmental activism angle was interesting and raised valid questions to consider.

All in all, this was an incredible sequel. I am obsessed with this series.

This was the sequel to Expectant Detectives. We were reunited with our favorite gal pals (and our favorite dog Helen) from Penton. Some things have changed though. They’ve all had their babies and almost a year has passed since they solved the murder and the mystery surrounded Penton.

What hasn’t changed? The fact that these ladies are somehow wrapped up in another murder and playing detective again, much to Jane’s dismay.

This book was weird for sure. Mixing motherhood and murders will never feel normal, but as a mom myself this book hit home for me in so many ways, one of my favorite quotes was “I’d never realized before parenting that tiredness was an emotion”. I really hope this isn’t the end for these ladies!

Book Title: Dead Tired
Series: The Expectant Detectives Book #2
Author: Kat Ailes
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press- Minotaur Books
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pub Date: June 4, 2024
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages: 336

This story is Book #2 “The Expectant Detectives” series. The first was entitle [book: The Expectant detectives] featuring - you guested it~ a group of soon-to-be moms-who bonded in a prenatal group and of course turn into-detectives solving mysteries.

This story takes place a year later and expectant moms Ailsa, Poppy, Hen and Alice are sleep-deprived new moms experiencing an intense year of first time parenting.
Sure enough they are once again entangled in another murder in the quiet village in the Cotswolds.
Our new moms and toddlers are on picnic in a Cotswold meadow, when they meet a pair of naked environmentalists, who are protesting the wind farm that will destroy the meadow as well as the 500 year old chestnut trees.,
They decide to attend an Earth Force meeting out of curiosity. Alice, Poppy and Ailsa end up agreeing to be chained to the ancient chestnut trees to prevent their being plowing down.

The is no doubt that Alice is a delightful, character as well as an amateur detective having to deal with a laughing baby at a funeral.
I love a good cozy mystery and the amateur sleuths typically follow a formula however this group is different.
This is definitely a light enjoyable read.
I believe you will also be looking forward for what is next with moms and their toddlers.

Want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur Books for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for June 4, 2024.

Alice and Alisa are taking the babies and their respective dogs for a walk through a meadow when they come across two naked people walking through the meadow. Raven and Leila are part of Earthforce, a group of protestors trying to stop a company from demolishing a grove of trees deep within the meadow. Alice and Alisa decide to join a protest and get chained to tree as part of a peaceful protest, however, when Leila is found dead the next morning, Alice and her friends once again find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation.

This is the second book I’ve read by the author and I do like her writing style. Each of the Mom characters are unique voices and I even enjoy the antics of Helen, Alice’s dog. You can visualize the chaos a young toddler and rambunctious dog create. The murder mystery is engaging and I figured out close to when the author revealed who the murder was which is a plus. Overall, this is an enjoyable mystery with fun characters.

“Dead Tired” was a good sequel. Alice and her friends are adjusting to motherhood, some more successfully than others. However, they cannot keep from becoming involved in another murder investigation. On a picnic with the kids and dogs, they come across a naked man and woman (Raven and Leila) who are protesting a local green energy company (Aether) which plans to bulldoze a copse of ancient trees to build a wind farm. The women, other than Hen, who works for Aether, attend an Earth Force meeting and then participate in the protest to save the copse, which involves chaining themselves to the trees. The next morning Leila turns up dead, having been strangled by an unknown assailant while chained to a tree.

Who was the killer? Raven (the boyfriend), Sam (Raven’s brother, who does not get along with Leila), Owen Myers, the founder of Aether, or someone else? The investigation reveals that Leila was not the person everyone thought she was. There are also numerous other secrets involving various other characters.

There are lots of humorous moments, especially involving Alice, her son Jack, and their crazy dog Helen.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this book! I read the first one in this series when it was originally available on NetGalley. If you're looking for a book that is easy to read, has a pretty good mystery that I didn't figure out before it was revealed, and that has relatable characters, then this might be the book for you. This would make a great beach read, similar to the first book in the series.

The moms are back! Now that they have all given birth, a new phase of craziness begins and of course, it involves murder. This is the second book in the series, and does standalone, but read the first also if you want to know more about the characters.

This is a clever mystery where the detective are new moms and, it's a story that will keep readers guessing. It's humorous, but there's also a depth to the characters and storyline. The English countryside backdrop adds to this charming tale of friendship. While it's second in the series, it can be read as a standalone novel.

It’s very rare for me to like a sequel more than the first book but boy did I like this one. The characters felt more fleshed out, more like real people, and the mystery kept me guessing until the very end. If there is a third book I’ll definitely be reading it!

Alice and her three friends Hen, Alisa and Poppy are picnicking with their babies when approached
by a naked couple, Raven and Leila. The couple are protesting the destruction of a copse of ancient
trees for a wind farm by green energy company Aether. When Alice, Alisa and Poppy participate in
a protest, Leila turns up dead. While the three investigate who had reason to kill Leila, they also
need to exercise care as Aether is Hen's employer. The more they find out about who Leila was,
the more questions arise.
#DeadTired #MinotaurBooks #NetGalley

I liked the first book in this series, The Expectant Detectives, and this was a solid follow-up. This is set in the same general area in the English countryside, with the same main characters from the first book, though now they are mothers at the end of their year of maternity leave rather than antenatal classmates. The setup is somewhat similar to the first one, in that main character Alice and her friends Poppy, Ailsa, and Hen get pulled pretty quickly into a murder, completely by chance. Instead of the murder being connected to a commune (as it was in the first book), this one is connected to a group of green eco-warrior activists, but otherwise there are a lot of similar elements - small town politics, amateur detectoring (as they call it), and lots of antics from Helen (Alice's slightly unhinged dog). The big difference this time is that there are also now one year olds in tow. I liked that Ailes doesn't shy away from the realities of parenting a young child - major sleep deprivation, postpartum mental health issues, childcare struggles, mastitis, and more. Overall, another fun English village mystery - if you liked the first book in the series, you'll like this one, too.

I loved the characters in Dead Tired, and laughed out loud in parts. This is brilliant. Thank you for a good book.

Four woman who bonded during a murder in their prenatal class continue to remain friends. They get involved in an eco-protest where one of the protesters is strangled. They get involved. For me, there was too much childcare and it took away from the investigation, although they do solve the murder.

Dead Tired is the hilarious sequel to The Expectant Detectives. Alice and her crew of friends, now all with at least one baby or dog in tow, are making the most of their maternity leave when they stumble into a murder. Leila was an activist campaigning against a wind farm being built in a peaceful meadow. Who would want to kill her? As they struggle through a heatwave and the adventures of being new moms, Alice and her friends are determined to crack the latest mystery.

I loved Dead Tired! It was such a funny and lighthearted mystery, while realistically portraying what it’s like to be a new mom. It was great to see how the relationships among the women had grown and changed in the year since having their babies. They clearly love their children so much, yet understandably are intrigued at the chance to solve a mystery. The mystery itself is full of twists and red herrings which kept me guessing until the end. Jack and the other babies are a lovable and comedic addition to the crew of detective. Helen remains the best dog and also most likely to eat something bad for her. I love Kat Ailes’ sense of humor and found myself literally laughing out loud. Readers who are fans of Finlay Donovan need to check this series out. I hope there are more mysteries to come in The Expectant Detectives series!

Thank you to Kat Ailes, Minotaur Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Instagram, Storygraph, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.

This is an entertaining mystery. I enjoyed the characters, in particular the narrator, Alice. I loved her self depreciating wit and descriptions of new parenthood.

There were a few 'Britishisms" I hadn't heard of before which didn't distract from the overall enjoyment of this book.

It is the second on the series but can be read as a stand alone

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

Cute, light cozy mystery with young mothers as detectives. I enjoyed the antics of these women, their babies and dogs, but they were a bit too silly for me. Maybe I'm just beyond this stage of life and less able to relate to them. I think readers in their 20s or 30s, particularly new mothers, would be more of the target audience. The books in the series would probably be enjoyed by them since they're both humorous and a good escape.

This is the second book in a cozy mystery series. You could read it as a standalone, but you will have a better idea of the characters and their relationships if you read it second to The Expectant Detectives. There is a little bit of mention to what happened in the first book in this one but I do recommend reading the first one first! It will make the story more enjoyable.
This story follows the new mom crew with all their babies at a year old. At the end of their maternity leave and they find themselves in the center of another murder mystery. The moms get involved in the investigation like the did in the first book as well. It is a fun light hearted mystery read. Helen; the dog is hilarious and could have used more of her. Overall an enjoyable read. A book to pick up when you want something fun and light hearted with silly characters.
Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

“Dead Tired” was a good sequel. Alice and her friends are adjusting to motherhood, some more successfully than others. However, they cannot keep from becoming involved in another murder investigation. On a picnic with the kids and dogs, they come across a naked man and woman (Raven and Leila) who are protesting a local green energy company (Aether) which plans to bulldoze a copse of ancient trees to build a wind farm. The women, other than Hen, who works for Aether, attend an Earth Force meeting and then participate in the protest to save the copse, which involves chaining themselves to the trees. The next morning Leila turns up dead, having been strangled by an unknown assailant while chained to a tree.

Who was the killer? Raven (the boyfriend), Sam (Raven’s brother, who does not get along with Leila), Owen Myers, the founder of Aether, or someone else? The investigation reveals that Leila was not the person everyone thought she was. There are also numerous other secrets involving various other characters.

There are lots of humorous moments, especially involving Alice, her son Jack, and their crazy dog Helen.