Mystery Book Recommendation: The Expectant Detectives | Kat Ailes | The Expectant Detectives #1

This week I really needed a pick me up and The Expectant Detectives delivered the mood lift I needed and more! Fresh, funny, heart-warming, and intriguing—this is the perfect mystery. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and not having a smile on their face.

About the Book | The Expectant Detectives

Can they solve the mother of all murders?

For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam? But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local prenatal class, and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.

With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice and her new-found pregnant friends set out to solve the mystery and clear their names, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier, and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

Review | The Expectant Detectives

This book is like the rom com of mysteries—funny, uplifting, engaging, and one I wanted to read again as soon as I finished it. There is something about British banter that absolutely delights me. I listened to the audiobook for a good portion because the narrator, Kitty Kelly, made Alice’s quirky humor come to life. I can’t recommend this book enough!

The book centers around Alice and her partner Joe who are soon-to-be-parents who have been together for about a year and half. With a baby on the way, they decide to leave the crowds and smog of London behind for the cozy village of Penton. Alice is excited to embrace country life (though she’s never quite sure if her “Barbour” coat and boots make her appear to be trying too hard) and they realize they can have a whole home and green space for less than they paid for a tiny London flat.

Alive joins an antenatal class where she soon meets the other pregnant women of Penton. I was instantly laughing at the beautiful and uptight Hen, whom the aggressively upbeat instructor asks about Chinese birthing rituals only to learn that Hen was born in England and her heritage is Korean, not Chinese. Laidback sidekick Poppy and her more serious partner Lynn are an absolute delight (and Poppy and Alice soon form a close friendship and bond over their sleuthing). And then dreadlocked Alisa is a member of the local commune and having a baby seemingly on her own (in addition to the support of the commune).

On the day before class, Alice is approached by an older man who claims that he has the remedies she needs to help with her urinary tract infections (of course, Alice rightly wonders how this man knows anything about her urinary tract). During class, things escalate when Hen goes into labor and delivers a baby during class, while the proprietor of the shop downstairs is murdered. It turns out he’s the same man who approached Alice earlier—Mr. Oliver. Could one of the class attendees or their partners slipped away and murdered Mr. Oliver during the distraction of the birth?

Alice, Poppy, Hen, and Alisa not only care about solving the murder that happened so close to them, but let’s be honest—they are a bit bored on maternity leave looking for things to distract them from their pending motherhood and uncomfortable bodies. Starting with Alice and Poppy, the four expecting mothers soon form an amateur detective club hoping to uncover the murderer. But things may be heating up faster than they can manage when another murder hits a bit too close to home and someone close to the group winds up on the suspect list.

If you’ve ever thought cozy mysteries are too kitschy for you, but you are looking for a mystery with a dose of humor—this is the book for you to read! The mystery is interesting, the characters are funny, the banter is top notch, and nothing about the book is silly or detracts from the story. I’m already desperate to read the next book in the series, because I didn’t want to leave these kooky mothers behind!

The pregnancy bits will make any woman laugh. Imagine attending a 2-hour sound bath with a baby squeezing your bladder the whole time… Or learning that some women eat their placenta (Alice and Poppy discuss at length if this makes you a cannibal and decide that since it is your own body, it really doesn’t qualify)!

The mystery was compelling and there are so many things going on in the sleep village of Penton that make the suspect list quite long. A decade-old cold case becomes relevant, and it is always interesting to see how someone goes about researching that case. Meanwhile the commune somehow is at the center of it all, and let’s just say that it introduces quite a few complications when trying to get to the truth of the matter.

You will laugh, you will be charmed, and you won’t want this book to end!!!

Thank you to Minotaur Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Kat Ailes

Kat Ailes works in publishing as an editor and freelanced for several years to allow her to take a couple of belated gap years, including hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. She now lives in the Cotswolds with her lovely husband, their young son and her beautiful but foolish dog.

 The Expectant Detectives is her debut novel, the first draft of which was written largely (and frantically) in three weeks after she submitted the first few chapters to the Comedy Women in Print Prize and was unexpectedly shortlisted.