THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES
Kat Ailes

EXPECTANT DETECTIVES by Kat Ailes comes out next Tuesday, January 9, 2024. It’s one of the first mysteries I’ve read that are due to be released in the early part of the year. I had a good time reading it and think you will too.

We’re following a group of pregnant and expecting women who meet at an antenatal class, but mostly we’re following Alice. Alice is very pregnant and uncomfortable and hoping this prenatal class will provide some insight into what’s to come on her journey.

The members of the group unexpectedly find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation when one day in class, while one of the women goes into surprise labor, a man is murdered downstairs. They are all suddenly suspects and, to clear their names become EXPECTANT DETECTIVES.

EXPECTANT DETECTIVES was a lot of fun. The story takes a familiar route, the surprises and twists are guessable, and Ailes does a great job providing a cozy retreat. If you go into it setting your expectations correctly, you won’t be surprised by its lightheartedness and humor. And I think you will have a good time.

EXPECTANT DETECTIVES was not only fun it was informative. We learn a lot about the peculiarities of pregnancy, birth, the birthing process, and the miracle of it all. I liked these details but could see it being too much for certain readers to handle.

This would make a cozy recommendation for someone expecting their first or their fifth child. Or someone like me who just enjoys a good cozy mystery.

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies!

EXPECTANT DETECTIVES…⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don't often venture into the cozy mystery genre, but this one caught my eye because it sounded very funny. It lived up to all my expectations, from making fun of over overly hippy natural medicine to communes to pregnant women stereotypes.

Joe and 9-month pregnant Alice move from the bustling city of London to what they think will be the quiet country life. Right from the start, however, their move becomes chaotic (and their high maintenance dog Helen only adds to it). On the night of their first birthing class at a new age store, the owner is found murdered, leading to all the attendees, even the one who gave birth during class, to become suspects. Alice and the other bored mums on early maternity leave decide to investigate the murder themselves which leads to long buried secrets.

Goofy and Lively, this was a great Cozy mystery to get caught up in.

3.5 stars

This story is enjoyable in a comical way with eccentric characters and a nosy dog named Helen. When pregnant Alice and her partner Joe moved to the countryside to escape “crime filled” London to raise their soon to be born child they didn’t expect crime to meet them the first day at their birthing class. Now with time on her hands before her baby is born, Alice teams up with the other expectant mothers from the birthing class to solve the case but it turns out it might hit closer to home than Alice realizes.

The Expectant Detectives reads like a cozy mystery only it’s slightly longer than the few cozy mystery series I’ve read. It’s got quirky characters, a furry companion, and it’s set in the quaint British countryside. It kinda gives off vibes akin to the Finlay Donovan series so if you are looking for a light murder mystery read then this is worth checking out.



Thank you publishers and netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

The first in a new series about Alice, who has recently moved to the countryside of England and who is weeks away from giving birth. She and her partner Joe decide to take prenatal classes, and things take a turn when someone ends up dead. Alice bands together with some of the other pregnant women in the class to solve the mystery.

Overall, I liked this mystery. I think it was a bit slow in terms of writing, but I liked the characters and clues. I especially liked Helen, Alice’s dog! Such great comic relief! Still, I think that this series will continue to grow and get better.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the Expectant Detectives - and I am usually not a cozy mystery reader, but this one really wrapped me in! The writing was great, the plot was silly yet kept me on my toes, and the characters were frustrating and delightful. It was one of those books where the protagonist makes a lot of bad decisions, but you relate to her and root for her. And such a funny idea - a group of pregnant women who barely know each other solving murders! They are not just pregnant but close to giving birth, so they are really up against a clock. And the whole story was resolved very neatly. I can't imagine what the sequel will be like but I look forward to it!

Do you like humor mixed in with your mysteries? If so, The Expectant Detectives should be perfect for you. It reminded me somewhat of the Finlay Donovan series of books.

Alice and Joe have moved from London (too expensive) to a village in the Cotswolds named Penton, which has a sort of hippy/new-age vibe: lots of shops that sell organic this-and-that, herbal remedies, and so forth. There’s even a commune nearby. Alice is about 8 months pregnant and the pair hope to make new friends through their prenatal classes. There’s a vivid but hilarious childbirth scene, when one of the women goes into labor during one of these sessions.

The sessions are held above a natural remedies shop, and when the EMTs arrive for the new mom and baby, they find the owner dead in the shop downstairs. For various reasons, the soon-to-be moms decide to investigate. There are some really funny scenes, such as a “gong bath.” And Alice’s dog, Helen, provides a lot of comic relief as well. Their rental house is kind of a disaster and Alice is not sure she’s cut out for motherhood (although it’s a bit late for that!). The story is narrated in the voice of Alice, in a very chatty way. Ailes skewers a lot of today’s “mommy culture” along the way.

I did figure out part of the mystery but not all of it, and figuring it out didn’t lessen my enjoyment.

Note: I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. But it was a bit disconcerting in some ways, as the print version has been Americanized to some extent (pre-natal vs. ante-natal, miles vs. kilometers), but in others it’s a mixed bag: some references to “cookies” but mostly to “biscuits”. The audio version, however, seemed to use British terms exclusively. Kitty Kelly did a great job with all the voices.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

This book was such a cute cozy mystery. Should there be additional books in this series, I will definitely be picking them up.

I'm not a mother, so I've never experienced pregnancy. That did not stop me from connecting with these characters and laughing out loud at parts of this book. The author did a great job of mixing in humor with the mystery. I love Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan series, and this book fell right into that same vein.

I loved the main character, Alice, and her pup Helen. The running joke of "don't bring Helen" had me giggling a couple of times as everyone knew how curious and rambunctious Helen could be.

The best part of this book for me was seeing Alice build real friendships with the women from the birthing class. It was so sweet to see her reluctantly do things with them to then become close friends by the end.

As for the mystery, I did not guess the murderer until Alice figured it out. There were a couple other smaller twists that surprised me, as well.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book to other cozy mystery lovers.

Read if you enjoy:
✔️ Cozy mysteries
✔️ Dog moms
✔️ Female friendships
✔️ Countryside settings

Such a fun book! If you’re in the mood for a humorous cozy, I suggest reading it. I confess I was completely shocked by whodunnit!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. N

This is a unique take on cozy mysteries, with the lead characters being expectant mothers. I appreciated the humor, and there were some fun twits and turns. The dog (Helen) steals the scene on many occasions. Thankfully, it wasn't predictable, which made it fun to sleuth along with the characters. Overall, this is a fun, quick read.

3.5 rounded up to 4

This had a lot of moving pieces that wove together well to create a story that was funny, relatable, and heartwarming with a bit of sinister mystery. Alice finds herself a potential witness to a murder while at a prenatal class and in her early maternity leave boredom decides to investigate along with other moms-to-be from her class. It gave me Finlay Donovan and Good Girls vibes with some of the antics they get up to.

Have you seen that meme that floats around every now and then that compares your mind to to having 55 internet browser tabs open at once? That is Alice. That is also me, so I very much related to her. I found this book to have some laugh out loud moments and found her pregnancy journey to be very relatable. At almost 400 pages, it's a bit too long, getting a little lost and repetitive in the middle. It came back together in the end though as the women solve the mystery together.

As with any cozy mystery, some of the events are over the top and there's some suspension of belief necessary for the plot to work. However, this book was just fun and perfect if you're looking for a lighter mystery with lots of laughs, found family, small town vibes, and some LGBTQ+ rep.

I couldn’t finish this one to its entirety. I wanted to like it but it just missed the mark for me. The story itself just wasn’t gripping my attention enough. There was a lot of characters that I kept getting confused. It just wasn’t for me.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes was a fun introduction to Alice and Joe and of course the dog Helen and all the other members of their prenatal group. I look forward to hearing more of their adventures!

This was a fun read that took me on a trip to the english countryside. The main character is kinda flighty and doesn’t really have any filter or any basic social skills like how to not say something cringy or without tact at the most inopportune times like when someone just died. I enjoyed seeing her grow as someone trying to find her new social circle and learning to hold her tongue a bit. Her dog probably would’ve been annoying in another writers hands but I ended up loving how freaking stupid Helen was. My main gripe was that it took a good 40% for it to find its footing for me. I felt like I was dragging myself through the pages until then. I am REALLY looking forward to the next one. I can’t wait to see how Alice and everyone experience the beginnings of motherhood and what new trouble they’ll stir up.

* this was an ARC provided through NetGalley to review

this was very funny and cozy mystery is a repeated genre for me. It was cute with all the little jokes and her dog tagging along.

For me, this book was pretty good. I was a little nervous based on the title and premise but I was delightfully surprised by it. I found it fun and quirky. Kept me interested and I liked the storyline.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a fun, laugh-out-loud, cozy mystery that is relatable even when it’s over-the-top. I’ll admit the first 10% had me worried about whether or not I would be able to stick with the story. It was too much- too much trying to be funny, too much exposition, and too much density. But once the murder occurred, the story settled into a fun, well-balanced story that ramped up to a nice medium pace.

The premise is hilarious. The visual of a small group of women late in their pregnancies running around the village trying to solve a murder mystery had me chuckling. And the fact that they are so relatable added to that fun. Alice is the main character and tells the story in first-person narration. Along with her incorrigible dog, Helen, and the other moms from her birthing class, she steadfastly and fearlessly unearths more than she ever expected.

I loved the village she moved to. It’s so much more than it first appears to be, and those hidden complexities make it fascinating. It holds many secrets just waiting to be discovered, and who doesn’t love discovering all the pieces to solve the mystery? I loved the many twists and turns the story took and that the end surprised me. And I’m curious to see how this becomes a series, considering that the women are no longer expecting. Despite a rough start, I found this cozy mystery entertaining.

This cozy English mystery is delightful! To be honest, it took me a while to get into it - I started and stopped the first few chapters over a couple of days. But once I got into the rhythm of the writing and the humor, I was hooked. And some of the lines had me literally laughing out loud. Now I can’t wait for the follow-up book!

I received a copy of this book from Minotaur Books.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I was offered an advanced copy because I liked the Finlay Donovan books, and it’s easy to see how this was compared to Finlay. However, it lacked the humor and ease of the Finlay Donovan series.

The Expectant Detectives follows expecting mother Alice as she moves to a new city and becomes involved in amateur sleuthing with a few other pregnant women.

I found this to be one of those books where I’m invested in the plot, so I want to know what happens. But overall I don’t really care about the book. I found the characters enjoyable, especially Alice and Ailsa. I also liked how all the plot points intertwined.

I do feel as though the author picked too many sub plots and could have condensed them. For example, I feel like the story would have had the same effect if it didn’t matter who Joe’s parents were.

I also hated the ending. The plot with Antoni wasn’t developed enough for his ending to make sense. Overall I would recommend this book, but it wouldn’t be the first thing I recommended. I will still read the second one!

What a smart clever mystery this is. Yes it's a cozy but it's got a bit more bite (and a more twisty set- yes set- of mysteries) than is the norm. Alice and her boyfriend Joe were surprised when she got pregnant but they've gone all in, even moving from London to the Cotswalds for more room and affordability. There's some woo woo in Penton but Alice quickly bonds with the women in her pregnancy group- especially after the shopkeeper downstairs from the class is murdered! She sets off with Polly, Ailsa, and Hen to get answers about the death, which seems to be tied to the commune outside of the village. And always with her incorrigible dog Helen (love Helen). Turns out there are more secrets in town and in her own home than she could have imagined. No spoilers from me- this has multiple twists and while I might have suspected one of them, not so the others. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good characters, a bit of pointed sarcasm, and lots of humor made this an excellent read- I'm looking forward to more from Ailes.

This was so much fun!

Imagine Bridget Jones, but pregnant, stuck in the country-side like a fish out of water, attempting to make new friends and solve a murder case. This is the best way I can explain Alice! She’s witty, frank, and hilarious. Oh, and she has a wildly funny dog side-kick, Helen.

Kat Ailes has written a cozy mystery with a fresh and young voice that many women or new mothers will easily connect with as Alice and her new friends snoop, investigate, and gossip their way to solving a local murder. There is a hippy commune, aqua-aerobics, pet sidekicks, affairs, love-triangles, decades aged grudges, and load of pregnancy and new motherhood events! I did that e-ARC, but have heard the audiobook is super fun, so I might do the audio for the next in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur publishing for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. I plan to highlight and feature the book on my social accounts in early 2024!