Funny enough, the moment I thought to myself that this book was going too slowly because the mystery hadn’t happened yet, Mr. Oliver was dead. Unfortunate perfect timing. That being said, this book is a little slow, but not boring. I was very invested in the characters and the setting (more so than the mystery itself which felt underdeveloped in comparison, but it was interesting to see it all play out). Alice and her girlies were so much fun and I can’t wait to read more of their adventures in the next book!

<I>Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press & Minotaur Books for the ARC! </i>

4.5/5

I had no idea what exactly to expect from the debut novel The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes, but it ended up being everything I could have ever hoped for! I love cozy mysteries, and this unlikely (to some extent) group of friends that link up after Alice and her husband move to a small village, really went for it with their sleuthing. It was quite humorous following a group of expectant mothers as they armchair detective their way through a murder, and there are even some other surprises along the way. The story itself is very funny, and I laughed out loud throughout the entire thing. Alice might just make her way into the list of my favorite characters of all time, and I adored silly little Helen the dog.

The audio is just as fun as the book is and I loved the narrator Kitty Kelly SO MUCH. I really hope she continues as the narrator for the series because I can't think of anyone better for Alice and just the whole vibe of the book in general. Listening to her was a dream, and I loved every minute of it. I will definitely have to grab a copy of The Expectant Detectives for my shelf, and I thoroughly enjoyed the witty, lightheartedness of it all. This was an easy read that kept me guessing, and I think if you are a fan of cozy mysteries that make you laugh, you won't find it hard to love this book.

The Expectant Detectives follow the story of Alice and Joe as they move to the countryside to raise their baby boy. When a man is killed while a woman gives birth in their antenatal class, things get a bit messy. Will they be able to solve who did it?

This story was just fun. No way around it. Alice was so relatable and so real. The humor surrounding pregnancy was so real and funny that there were times where I laughed out loud. It helped me to feel seen for how I felt alot of the time when I was pregnant. The mystery itself was very good as well. I did call who did it at one point but I was never confident and that helped me to love the book even more. I am so excited to read the next in the series when it comes out!

Loved this funny and charming debut mystery! All the stars for this one
A small group of expectant moms, each from a different background, team up to solve a murder investigation in their small, sleepy little British town.
Loved the setting, loved the lively characters and their sense of individuality.
And of course, loved Alice’s lack of a filter and her bougie yet chaotic dog Helen.
This was a fun cozy mystery, and I look forward to future installments in the series. I’d like to hear more from the other moms’ perspectives.

Thank you @minotaur_books for providing me with this physical copy & @Netgalley widget in exchange for my honest review.

In her debut novel Kat Ailes explores what happens when a death happens so close to a prenatal class in a small town.

Alice and her partner Joe have decided to move from London to the small sleepy town of Penton because they are expecting their first child together. The agree that the small town feels like the perfect place to raise a family. That is until a local shop keeper's body is found just a few feet from where Alice and Joe are attending their prenatal class. What Alice and Joe also don’t expect is that somehow everyone in the class is now a suspect. With that in mind, Alice and the other women in the class has a common goal, to prove that they did not murder the shop keeper and find out who did. Penton is far from the idyllic town that they thought it would be and between the shady commune in the woods to a mysterious death that occurred 10 years prior, moving to the country may not have been the best thing.

I really enjoy small town mysteries as I find that while the small town may look quant to those who are just visiting you have to know that there are probably secret galore in that town as well. Hard to keep secrets when everyone knows each other. What makes this one different from books that you have read in the past is the main two individuals who do the detecting are Pregnant, well along pregnant, like could pop at any moment. This add a unique perspective in what Alice decides to do, I mean when you're pregnant and already off work what better way to spend your time than to investigate a murder.

This is a cute cozy mystery that is not that high on suspense and more about a very pregnant women and one who just had a baby try to figure out who a murderer is. There are some different aspects with the hippie compound that seems to be the center of it all, as well as the death that occurred 10 years ago that seems suspicious. With all this i will say that Ailes did a good job of keeping things straight and not confusing. I was able to figure out one twist but not the other. We only get Alice's POV in this book so i feel like you get to know her quite well and her motivation to investigate the murder is really seeded in her need to find friends.

Helen is the best character and I will not be swayed from this. Really Helen is the hero here.

I like that Ailes highlights at the beginning of a book how hard it is to root up one's life when they are older and how much harder it is to make friends as an adult. It's like we all forgot how to make friends and are just overly concerned that we will say the wrong thing, that we do say the wrong thing. Alice i very conscious of this and often put her foot in her mouth.

The book did feel overly long by the end of it though and everything get tidied up in a neat bow. I think you can also tell with the writing style that this is Ailes debut novel but I have no issue with that.

This was a good easy read, with some fun and funny moments. If you want a break from more serious books, this is one to give a try. I mean they are pregnant, why not investigate a murder.

Enjoy!!!

Alice and Joe left the high-rental prices on tiny lofts in London to live in an actual house in the countryside. They somewhat unexplainably decide to do it while Alice is nine months pregnant and about to pop, which is why they join an antenatal class the day after moving into town. Because, of course, one of Alice's main personality quirks is that she leaves everything to the last second and is unprepared for everything. A few days into small-town living, one of the women in the class goes into labor right in the naturalist shop where it's taught and as one new life is born, the owner of the shop is found murdered in another room. Naturally, Alice decides that she must find out the truth of what really happened, becoming friends with the other women and shedding light on several secrets along the way.
Even with Alice having many of the traits that I usually dislike in a lead character - i.e, an unhealthy lack of basic life skills that gets presented as a funny quirk but isn't - the plot keeps taking such interesting turns that it's impossible to not get pulled into the caper. I was interested in the investigation because a big part of it is getting to know the very different women coming together to solve the mystery, and it happens via women coming together to support each other. It's a solid plot support and one that really helped me get over my initial dislike of Alice and helped her grow on me.

Am I going to rave about this book to all and sundry? Probably not. Did I end up really enjoying it and getting pulled into the story? Definitely. In the end, it's the ultimate bumbling busybody sticking their nose into a small-town murder mystery with the original twist of most of the characters being extremely pregnant. It has its moments, both good and bad, but it certainly delivers an entertaining story.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the most excellent read!

Quite the fun twist on your typical cozy mystery this new English cozy (cosy for them 😉). This is a fresh modern take on quite a few classic tropes - Alice, the sleuth, has just changed her life in dramatic fashion: she is about to be a mom and moves from London where space is way too expensive to a village in the Cotswolds with her partner.

At the start of the book Joe and Alice haven’t even unpacked, but Alice signs up for a prenatal class and that’s were things start to go off the rails, quite the cast of characters get together in that class. I was reminded of prenatal classes for my kids births and how the sole common denominator was the kids’ birth month so I thought this setting for a mystery was a good one just for the laughs that result from getting such a wild cast of characters together in one room. Already during the first class a death and a birth occur in the same building at the same time. Now suspicion looms over the whole group, slightly disappointed by the local police, Alice and her new pregnant and recently delivered friends set out to solve the mystery. They have a very different access to this little community and it’s eccentric characters and unexpected secrets are revealed. Alice's 'sidekick' crazy dog Helen was a standout for comedic relief!
For a debut, this was a fun one and I will read book two when it comes out. The writing was good, it had short chapters, hilarious characters, and a mystery that kept me engaged even if there were moments when I thought the story moved a bit too slowly and there we’re redundancies. Alice herself was a part I did not enjoy as much, she was naive and oblivious to the point that it became a bit annoying. But I enjoyed how themes of female friendship were addressed in this book.

I ended up DNF this book around 40% I just couldn't get into it. I mostly wanted to read because there was a daxie on the cover, and there were fun dog antics talked about in the book but it was never actually mentioned that Helen was a daxie. The overall "mystery" too just seem so far fetched. The writing was good though!

Thank you netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

I don't read a lot in the cozy mystery genre, but I think I should start. There's something really comforting about a mystery that's infused with a bit of humor and lightheartedness. This book follows Alice, a pregnant woman who moves to the English countryside right before her due date. She makes friends with the women in her birthing class, but when a murder happens in the town, the women decide to play detectives and solve the case.

There's a lot of silly antics (especially when it comes to Alice's rambunctious dog, Helen) that would have turned me off in other books, but it seemed to work really well here. I also thought I had figured out the killer early on, but there were a few twists that ended up changing the game. My only complaint was that the book was a tad long. It felt like there were a few side characters and plots that didn't need to be there.

I am looking forward to heading back to this world again, so I'll definitely be checking out the second book in this series. Can't wait to see Alice as a mother and to see what shenanigans she finds herself in next!

The cast of characters were entertaining. Overall, I enjoyed the story. I think I was expecting it to progress a bit more quickly than it did, though. I admit I did not see the killer coming, but I am sure there are those who will figure it out before the end of the book.

I have been provided with a review copy of The Expectant Detectives from NetGalley for an impartial review. I just absolutely had so much fun getting to go along on these characters journey. I was just swept away and I just absolutely can’t get enough of this series or its wonderful characters. This author just has a way of drawing you in with her wonderful stories and you just can’t get enough of them. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

This was a cute book. I wasn’t sure “whodunit” until the end. The descriptive writing placed me right in the English countryside and the homeopathic shop.

The Expectant Detectives was a read I was looking forward to for a funny cozy mystery. While I did laugh a bit, at times the story felt a bit dry and repetitive, though I did enjoy the goings on from the ladies in the prenatal class and how they felt they needed something to take their mind of their pregnancies, so they became detectives. Overall the story was entertaining but left me wanting a bit more.
Thank you to Netgalley and Mintoaur Books for a copy of this read in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was such a fun mystery set in the English countryside. Alice moves to a small town during her pregnancy and connects with other women over a mysterious murder. There were so many laugh out loud parts (mostly including Helen the dog) and really engaging characters. I am looking forward to the next in this series.

Thanks to Kat Ailes, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Frothy and fun, mystery. Hope we see our protagonist, Alice, her fellow amateur sleuths, and especially her endearing dog, Helen, in a future cozy mystery set in the Cotswolds or elsewhere.
Thank you #NetGalley and #MinotaurBooks for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

The Expectant Detectives was a well-done and charming cozy mystery. Alice is pregnant and about to pop when she and her partner, Joe, move to the town of Penton. She expects an idyllic village full of charming but quirky characters, but ends up with so much more. There's more than meets the eye to everyone she encounters.

An enjoyable mystery with cute comic relief, particularly Helen the dog. A few sections dragged a tad, hence the 4 stars, but overall would recimmend. I look forward to the next book in the series to see how the characters continue to develop!

This book was such a treat! It gave me the same vibes as the Finlay Donovan series which is a favorite of mine. I enjoyed the friendship formed between all of the "detectives" and enjoyed the witty conversations. Comedic mysteries are really turning into my favorite! Happy to see that there will be a sequel!

My only wish is that there had been more content between Alice and Joe and a little more information towards the end. It felt a bit rushed to wrap up and I had wanted more details about the things that were discovered towards the last 10% of the book.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's press for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

I love a cozy mystery and this one definitely delivered. I would say it has a bit of a slow start but many great books do. It has lots of quirky characters and the setting is just lovely. I enjoyed it and will definitely keep reading more of this author.

The Expectant Detectives was the true definition of a cozy murder mystery. It was a hilarious and fun read and I’m sad it’s over!

A group of women, including newcomer, Alice, bond over the fact that they are all pregnant and were all present at a murder. They decide that they must launch their own investigation and they get themselves into a truly tangled mess.

Genre: mystery
Pages: 384
Author: Kat Ailes
Favorite quote: “Don’t bring Helen.”

Expectant Detectives was a great debut novel by Kat Ailes! I was laughing from the very beginning - the characters were great and I loved the additional mysteries inside this cozy mystery. I look forward to reading the next book in this series!

The story itself was well written and it really started out strong, I just felt like it started to become redundant and went on longer than it really needed to. I love how all of the Mom Detectives were so diverse and yet they really complimented each other. While I really enjoyed Alice’s character, she did come across as a complainer. I get that pregnancy can be rough but I felt that she was over the top at times and really put herself & her baby at risk (more than any of the other moms really).

I loved the setting of this book! I was just really confused on how they didn’t check the house before moving there - especially so close to Alice’s due date. And why didn’t they contact their landlord for all of the issues?

Helen really stole the show in this book. Her antics had me laughing the most. I can just see this ditzy dog getting into trouble! Ailsa was my favorite character and I was secretly hoping that I figured out who her baby’s dad was! Joe was my least favorite character - I get that he had his own things he was working through but seriously, he really was a crappy partner. I hope we can see some character development with him in the next book.

Overall, this was such a hilarious book and I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a quick read!

𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 ℍ𝕒𝕤:
Small Town Drama
New Found Mom Friends
Pregnancy
Cozy Mystery
England Countryside Setting
Murders
Amateur Sleuthing
LGBTGIA rep
Dog moms

Thank you to @netgalley, @stmartinspress & @minotaurbooks for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.