3.5/5 rounded up

Thank you Macmillan audio for the advanced listening copy!

Alice and Joe have had a whirlwind of a romance, resulting in them unexpectedly expecting a baby and moving from the bustling city to the quiet village of Penton. While they're working hard at adjusting, things aren't quite falling into place like they had hoped. When a dead body turns up at their prenatal class, Alice and her pregnant friends decide to take matters into their own hands and unravel the long-seeded secrets Penton has to offer.

This book was so cute and clever, but, overall, fell a little bit flat for me! While I loved the main character and her pals, there were SO many characters to keep track of! With that long list of characters came an even longer list of red herrings, and I couldn't even begin to guess where this was going (for better AND for worse). I have seen this book compared to FINLAY DONOVAN series and while I agree that this book is also super cute and clever, it falls short in that comparison by far.

Overall, I enjoyed this listen! The book was a bit too long for me and I lost interest in the middle, but the story rounded out nicely and, like I said, I loved the characters and they kept me going til the end. I'm intrigued for more in this series, if that's where we're headed!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Expectant Detectives is fun, unique cozy mystery about a group of soon-to-be-moms-turned-detectives. When Alice moves to a sleepy village to give birth to her first child, the last thing she expects is to be caught up in a murder mystery.

I loved this cute cozy mystery and it made me laugh out loud many times. The British narration was perfection and the narrator nailed the humor. I was entertained and glued to my headphones.

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read with Alice running amok and her dog Helen getting into literally EVERYTHING! I am not sure they would have been able to solve the case without Helen. I can't wait to see what the ladies get up to in the next installment! This was my 1st book by Kat Ailes but will not be my last!

I was in the mood for a cozy mystery and The Expectant Detectives really hit the spot!

Expectant parents Alice and Joe have just relocated from London to the country, looking for a quiet place to raise their child. Instead of quiet, however, they find themselves accidentally enmeshed in a murder investigation when a man is killed in the bulding where they are taking a prenatal class.

Alice and the other expectant mothers, upset that they could be considered suspects, take it upon themselves to play amateur detectives. Their goal is to catch the real killer and clear their names.

This was such a fun read! There are just enough twists and turns with respect to the murder to keep things interesting, while all of the antics kept me laughing with each turn of the page. And then of course there’s Alice’s silly dog Helen who steals the show in every scene she is in.

I tandem read this between a physical copy of the book and the audio version. I really vibed with the author’s writing style and just flew through it. Kitty Kelly also does a phenomenal job narrating the audio, capturing all of the charming, cozy vibes as well as the laughs.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries that have a bit of a Finlay Donovan vibe, I recommend checking out this one!

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. I DNF'd at 35%. Honestly, I was just so bored.

The narrator did a good job, but the story did not entice me to continue.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely enjoyed this book. This is a great comfort read when you need to shut out the world. There’s equal balance comedy and heart.

Alice and her partner Joe move to the village of Penton. In search of the quiet life away from London to welcome their baby boy. Their world is quickly flipped when the shop owner is found dead during their birthing class. Alice and her gang of expectant mothers begin to investigate the murder. Uncovering generations of secrets.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series Dead Tired coming out 6/4/2024.

This was pretty good but I didn’t get to listen to it all before it expired and was no longer available. But I did buy a digital copy based on liking the portion I heard, so that’s a win for the author!

"The Expectant Detectives" is quirky and funny, and yet a compelling mystery too with lots of references to British TV detectives for fun pop culture references too. It turned out to be a surprise favorite for me so far this year.

In the story, Alice and her boyfriend Joe have moved from London to the country just weeks before their first child is due. Bored with maternity leave, yet not feeling inclined to unpack, Alice sets out to make new friends in their new town. Little did she anticipate that she and three other soon-to-be mothers would find themselves in the thick of a murder investigation. With all that spare time on their hands, and a desire to think of anything other than the impending births of their children, they decide to poke around a bit.

What ensues is a wild ride, uncovering a hippie commune, a decade-old mysterious death, and so much more. I definitely enjoyed their antics as well as that of their dogs. Helen was a hoot!

As another reviewer mentioned, I do hope this is the start of a series, because I'm hooked!

Thank you to Kat Ailes, the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Absolutely loved this book! If you are a fan of British mystery tv, you will be delighted by all the references to famous tv detectives. I really hope this is the start of a series because I love Alice and her fellow soon-to-be mamas and especially Helen the dog! This book was funny, poignant, and had a compelling mystery to boot. The audio is pitch perfect, I listened nearly non-stop until I finished it. Now let's get Alice a tv show so she can join the ranks of her favorites!

Alice and her boyfriend Joe are experiencing a lot of major life changes. Their first child is imminent and they have just moved to a new house in the sleepy town of Penton, in the Cotwolds. Living in a rural town is a big adjustment for the former Londoners but they decide to make the best of it by joining a local prenatal class.

Their first class is definitely eventful—an attendee gives birth and while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, a dead body is discovered on the premises. Everyone in the prenatal group is a murder suspect—except the newborn.

Alice has watched enough episodes of Midsomer Murders to know how this works, so she decides to solve the murder herself—getting her new friends from the prenatal group to join the investigation.

I really enjoyed this one. It's perfect for the dull days of January. It was great fun watching Alice and Joe adapt to their new town and to their future roles as parents. Their rambunctious dog, Helen is a terrific character, too.

I enjoyed the narration by Kitty Kelly and will look forward to other books she reads.

I look forward to more books in the series!
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of the audiobook.

Embark on a cozy yet thrilling journey with Alice and Joe in the quaint village of Penton. What begins as a move to embrace country life takes a dark turn when a murder disrupts their idyllic plans. 'The Mother of All Murders' unfolds a captivating tale of suspense, secrets, and unexpected twists. Alice and her pregnant companions, fueled by determination and a troublesome dog named Helen, navigate a web of mysteries, shady communes, and buried secrets, making for a compelling whodunit that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Fun read, Alice and her partner Joe, find themselves about to be parents and decide to move to the country side of Penton to live a country life and be able to live a better life than in crowded London.

Alice goes to her first prenatal class and meets other new parents. Unfortunately, a dead body is discovered at the prenatal class and Alice and her friend Poppy soon find themselves suspects in the murder case.

The story moved quickly and I listened to the audio version of the book. It was fun to hear Alice talk about how to move around the house and deal with small spaces while being obviously very pregnant. Helen, the dog steals he show in many chapters and if you are a dog lover, this just adds to the enjoyment of the book.

The Expectant Detectives is a fun read and a good book to read with a cup of tea on a weekend night.

Thank you to NetGalley for early access to the audio book.

Not your typical cozy mystery.

The story is laugh out loud funny with tongue in cheek sarcasm. The author’s writing was very descriptive, and made it quite easy for the reader to feel as if they were there in the middle of the story. Alice, the protagonist, is a suspicious, funny, soon to be mom. A great foil for her was Inspector Harris who had one personality, grumpy. Until I read this book, I never realized how funny having a baby can be. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent.

As a warning, there is adult language, which readers of cozy mysteries know is a no-no. Having said that, if you can get past that, I highly recommend giving this book a read or listen.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions are my own.

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

This was a fun read! Some parts of the story were rather funny and the mystery kept me guessing. Pregnancy and childbirth play a prominent role in this story and I thought it was rather entertaining to imagine a group of hugely pregnant women playing detective. I am so glad that I took a chance and decided to give this book a try.

Alice and her boyfriend, Joe, have just moved to town with their dog, Helen, and are due to have a baby very soon. They enroll in a childbirth class and not only does one student go into labor during the first session but a man dies in the shop downstairs and they are all considered suspects. Alice wants to make friends and what could be a better way to bond than solving a murder with some of the women she has met at childbirth class?

I listened to the audiobook and thought Kitty Kelly did a great job with this story. This is only the second time that I have listened to this narrator’s work and I have been impressed both times. She did a great job with the more comical moments in this story which helped to bring the story to life. I liked the voices that she used for the various characters in this story and thought that she brought just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I believe that her performance added to my overall enjoyment of this story.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that there was a nice balance of humor and mystery in this book and I loved the fact that it kept me guessing until the end. I plan to pick up the second book just as soon as it becomes available.

I received a review copy of this book from Macmillan Audio and Minotaur Books.

This one was OK; it kind of felt like Finlay Donovan but make her pregnant. I didn't fully connect to the story and I don't think I'll be reading the series if it continues.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I really wanted more from this book. I love a good cozy mystery especially when it has animals but the way the main character talker about her dog really upset me and sort of ruined the whole book for me. I have no problem with teasing your dog about being silly or even dumb (I call my golden cotton candy brain often) but thus character took it to far. She was constantly talking shit about her dog. She made it sound like she didn't even like her. I know that has nothing to do with the actual book but it just put a really bad taste in my mouth. It made me not want to read this or anything the author writers.... I can't trust someone who mistreats their pet.

It has been ages since I have reviewed any books. I would like to apologize for that. I had a stroke, and it took away my ability to read regular books. I was too proud to turn to audiobooks. I finally did and I have been enjoying them. I was too afraid to do reviews because I didn't feel that my words would come to me. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. However, this is my true feelings about this book.

It has been ages since I was pregnant. My youngest would have been 24 this year if she would have survived. So, to say that reading this took me back in time to when I was pregnant is to definitely say something. The author wrote it in such a way that it brought back those memories for me. I could remember the weight of the baby on the bladder and how it felt to walk.

The main character of the book is Alice. She and her partner Joe have just moved to a lovely little village in England named Penton. During her first prenatal class, one of her classmates goes into labor. Yikes! Definitely not a way to give birth (or at least not one that I would want). And it gets worse. The store owner who is graciously allowing them to hold the class in his store is murdered while the birth is taking place. This leaves the entire prenatal class as suspects. The pregnant women take it upon themselves to try to solve the murder.

I absolutely loved this book. Most cozies have the protagonist hiding behind things to listen in to conversations. You definitely can't do that with a pregnant woman. Her belly comes into a room before she does. In fact, many of the tropes that cozies use (running, jumping out of windows, etc) can't be used due to the pregnancies. So, this book breathed a breath of fresh air into the genre of cozy mystery.

Thank you, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

**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!

This was a delightful cozy murder mystery about Alice and Joe who moved to the countryside while expecting their first child. Alice gets wrapped up in the murder investigation of Mr. Oliver when he is murdered downstairs from her prenatal class.
The story goes on to follow Alice and the other pregnant mothers from the prenatal class investigate to solve the mystery.
This was funny and heartwarming. I really enjoyed all of the plot and the characters. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fantastic. I’m excited to recommend The Expectant Detectives!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of the audiobook version.