Alice and her partner Joe move to the countryside hoping to raise their soon-to-be born son in a peaceful environment, but that peace is shattered when a local store owner is found murdered during the course of an eventful antenatal class.

I've read plenty of flavors of cozy mystery, but a group of detectives in the final trimester of pregnancy is definitely not one I've seen before. Add in plenty of humor and a number of ill-behaved dogs, and I was sold.

And this is definitely a funny, relatable read, with a likeable lead who has a whole host of ordinary problems - worry about being a good parent! The difficulty of making friends in adulthood! A partner who may be retreating when one needs them the most - and into right wing politics at that! Supporting and secondary characters were well-fleshed out and just fun to be around, and I enjoyed the dry wit of Alice's narration. The mystery itself was engaging, even if it unravels a bit messily toward the end.

However, the pacing could have been tighter. After an engaging start, things sagged toward the middle, and while the end tried to recollect itself it sort of collapsed in on itself as revelations came hard and fast - that I'd guessed some of the twists already helped only a little. Especially considering the solution to the mystery, I'd had appreciated seeing more of the aftermath than we were offered. Also Alice was even for a blunt person sometimes frustratingly obvious in her questioning, putting her foot in her mouth seemingly just to extend the tension.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Kitty Kelly. I thought she did a good job of capturing Alice's wry humor, as well as being suitably somber when the story called for it. A decent diversity of accents helped with telling the large cast apart.

This murder mystery is told by a pregnant lady, and that makes it so much better. While in a birthing class, a fellow classmate has a baby while somewhere else in the building a man is being murdered.... This book was great and perfect for fans of cozy mysteries!

The narrator Kitty Kelly did a phenomenal job and made this book so fun!

A great start to a new series! Wonderful characters in an incredible setting. This book will keep you guessing until the end.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a fun, laugh-out-loud, first book in a new cozy mystery series, The Expectant Detectives. Alice and her partner Joe, moved to the small village of Penton. They are ready to embrace country life and get ready for their first child. That quiet life is quickly changes when a dead body is discovered at their prenatal class. Everyone is suspect, so Alice and a few of the other soon to be moms, begin to investigate. With her new friends and Alice's dog, Helen, they begin to uncover secrets in Penton including a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier, and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen. Will Alice and her friends be able to find the killer?

The premise of this book and series is hilarious. A group of pregnant women and a dog sneaking around and asking questions to solve a murder had me snickering many times. I enjoyed getting to know these characters, including Helen. The village was a great setting, with that sense of community and some eccentric and quirky characters. With some twists and red herrings, I didn't figure out the culprit, but the reveal was a great ending. With the women giving birth, the next book will be a bit different, and I wonder if they will change the name of the series. The audiobook was narrated by Kitty Kelly, a new narrator to me. I enjoyed her performance and enjoyed listening to this audiobook.

This was a DNF for me. I think the flow of the story was just off. Most times, I love a good cozy mystery, but I just couldn't get into this one. Maybe it was just meant for another reader.

I loved this book! Great storyline. Loved the twist at the end. I thought the main character acknowledging her faults/bad personality traits was a bit abnormal. Great narrator.

This was the first book by Kat Allies that I have read, but it won't be my last. This book was just as funny as I expected it to be. Four very different women have nothing in common except that they are all about to give birth. Shortly after the birth of one baby, a body is discovered and the four women set out to solve the murder. I alternated between an book and an audiobook and enjoyed both. Kat Allies has a singular wit that kept me laughing and Kitty Kelly was a joy to hear. She portrays the various characters, and their are many, with just enough difference to be distinguishable. The narration is subtle. Kelly sounds more like a friend telling the story than a n actress on the screen, which is perfect for this particular story. Although there are very few British terms (as apposed to American), the narrator does have an accent. If that is something causes you difficulty , than you will want to go for the written word instead. Either way, you will want to read this book. I can't wait to read the sequel.

This was my first Kat Ailes's book, and won't be my last. This is the first book in the Expectant Detectives series, a cozy mystery series. I loved to follow this group of soon-to-be moms-turned-detectives. The characters are interesting. The story is fun, entertaining, and sweet. This is a good debut mystery. Kitty Kelly did a great job bringing this story to life. Looking forward to more in the series. I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, a Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books, for an honest review.

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery in this book and the author’s writing style. But on the whole this book was not for me. It has too much political, feminist, and woke rhetoric for me to enjoy it fully. If you don’t mind or enjoy those things then you’ll really like it. As I say the actual mystery was good.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the story in the beginning but I made up my mind eventually.

This book had a real deadline: Alice needs to figure out who among them is a murderer before her baby arrives. Unfortunately, the main character feels days away from giving birth the entire book. Nothing really progresses. While reading this book, we are surrounded by pregnant women, only one of whom gives birth in the time it takes for them to finally figure out who did it. And she gave birth in the first, like, third of the book. The very real deadline became arbitrary, as time didn't seem to actually pass for the characters.

The plot was boring and dragged on, and the characters were barely tolerable. The ending was insanely predictable.

This was a fun cozy mystery set in a small England country town about a group of pregnant women who find themselves trying to solve a murder in order to exonerate one of their partners. Being 8 months pregnant myself made this even more fun to listen to because I could completely relate to all of their aches and pains. I also thought the mystery was well done and honestly did not see the suspect coming.

I really had a great time with this book. I personally love a good cozy mystery that is kinda silly but over all is a fun twisty mystery. Adding in the fun of our main character being pregnant and bored so she decided to become a arm chair detective is so much fun! Overall loved this story and the narrator was great!

Book 034 of 300 ~ 2024

🌟🌟🌟🌟

So I hit the jackpot with this. I entered a goodreads giveaway and won the physical copy - my first win. While entering that giveaway, I applied for review copies for both the audiobook and ebook - hoping to score one but won all.

I juggled between the three. Sometimes I read either the book or ebook while listening to the audiobook, most times I interchanged platforms.

I enjoyed the narrator. She did an excellent job.

For the story, how clever to have pregnant women as sleuths. I thought that was rather imaginative.

Plot was good and I kept reading.

I'd be open to a possible series or at least a second book as the sleuths as new moms, maybe.

I received complimentary copies of the physical, ebook, and audiobook. Opinions shared in this review are completely my own.

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(3.5 rounded up to a 4)

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a charming debut cozy mystery and the start of a new series.

With the impending birth of their first child, Alice and Joe opt to leave fast-paced London for a cozy village in the country. Little did they know that there would be a murder in the building during there pre-natal class! The women in the class band together and become friends while also poking their noses into the case.

The audiobook is narrated by Kitty Kelly. I think she does a great job, especially with the different voices she used for all of the characters. She really helped the humor shine in this book; there's a lot of wit and sass.

I laughed out loud several times while reading, especially when Alice's dog Helen got into things. Alice herself is a bit of a mess, and I identified with her in several ways. I simply need more of these characters in my life.

I will definitely be continuing on with this series. If you like cozy mysteries in quirky small towns, you should pick this one up.

CW: murder, death, dog in peril (poison, she ends up okay)

I thought this was mostly a fun book. I enjoyed watching the relationships develop, though I did think our MC was a bit of a mess most of the time.

I found some of the story interesting, though I figured out most of the reveals earlier than intended. I was still curious to see how they would play out. Unfortunately, the end fell flat and left a lot to be desired.

Overall, I found it to be a decent read, but wish the end was more developed.

I received an audio copy of this book through Macmillan Audio and was enjoying the narration by Kitty Kelly. However, due to a glitch with the NetGalley app, I lost the book early on and had to read a physical copy through my local library.

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.

A couple moves to a small town because they are pregnant and the first goal is to go to prenatal classes in hopes of meeting some new people and of course there's a suspicious death in the same building as one of the ladies unexpectedly gives birth. I love that these ladies didn't really have much in common except for the fact that they were expecting, but they come together and snoop around to find out what happened. It was a cute cozy murder and I think I'll keep reading the series to see what will happen next. Also I loved Helen and wish she would have been more involved in the story.

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 didn't love this book but chugged through. I don't know if it was the narrator, the townspeople, or what. Maybe my mood? I would give this a solid three stars because there wasn't any one thing BAD about it. It could have been a me problem. The narrator was great, I think I was just not in the mood for this kind of story when I picked it up.