Thanks to netgalley and publishers for arc
What a joy to read I loved this book from the very start to the very last word. Fantastic writing about Alice a pregnant mum to be and her partner Joe who decide to move out of London and into the country as it will be better for their baby!
So find themselves in this little village with a forest and a few shops and a commune and after a long walk a pub but as Alice can’t drink not much fun for her! But they have enrolled for some anti natal classes so hope to meet some friends there, first meeting is a blast they meet Poppy and her wife Lin nice normal couple. Then there is Aisla who is on her own quite narky ! Then finally Hen and her husband Antonio in his very shiny suit, things get a bit complicated when Hen suddenly goes into labour and promptly gives birth to a baby girl during the session. Alice didn’t intend to watch a child birth video until right before her expected date but has seen it all now. Meanwhile downstairs in the shop owned by mr Oliver there is a commotion it appears he is dead and not off natural causes. So the police are called and a detective Harris comes upstairs to talk to them all, turns out she’s Ailsas sister but in light of fact they were all involved with birth they all had alibi’s
The following day Alice and Poppy meet up for a dog walk and to discuss the previous evening events and the little detectives are started on their mission
To find out more read the book……

I really enjoyed this book! Its a tongue in cheek murder mysery combined with trials and tribulations of first pregnancies!

Alice and her boyfriend Joe are expecting their first baby and have moved out of London to the hippy dippy village of Preston. Despite feeling a bit our of her comfort zone in her new rural home, where the majority of the shops sell essential oils and floaty scarves and all of the cafes are vegan, Alice tries her best to fit in.

Joe, on the otherhand, is a little withdrawn, but she puts it down to nerves about becoming a father (the pregnancy wasnt altogether planned, after all!)

When there is a suspicious death at their first antenatal meeting Alice and her ecletic group of new mum friends distract themselves from their impending birthd by trying to solve the mystery. Could the killer be amnongst their friends and neighbours? And is there a connection with the hippy commune in the forest?

I really liked like the humourous, down-to-earth style of this book A fun read, that keeps you guessing!

Alice and partner Joe decide as the arrival of their unexpected baby approaches, that it is time to leave the rat race of London and moved to the Cotswold village of Penton. Alice worries about making new friends but she soon pals up with Poppy another expectant mum whilst dog walking. Attending an anti-natal class introduced her to some more. The first class was odd but the second...a real live birth and a murder! Waiting for the birth of their babies the group try to solve the murder. Hippy communes, eccentric characters and dogs all make for a fun romp. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read and review this book.

Alice and Joe are expecting their first baby and they have decided to leave behind the chaos of London and move to the quiet town of Penton in the Cotswold Hills. With just a few weeks before the birth, they have just the time to organize their new house for the arrival of their baby and attend antenatal class. Alice hopes to bond with other future mothers and make a few friends, but what she gets is mopping the floor while one of them gives birth and being involved in a murder investigation.

This was quite an enjoyable and intriguing cozy mystery and I had so much fun reading it. There is a lot going on. A picturesque setting, a small community, an organic farm commune with a few secrets, gong baths (a meditation thing), and lots more. The author put together an eclectic cast of characters with little in common, except for pregnancy and murder. And it is the murder that allows Alice to bond with the other expectant mothers as, helped by three adorable and funny dogs (especially Alice’s dog, Helen, who was my favorite character in the entire novel!), they start their own investigation, first out of curiosity, and then to help one of their own under suspicion.

The story is told from Alice’s perspective. She is funny, smart, and authentic. Her dry humour made me often laugh, and I found her approach to motherhood, her fears, and her doubts, relatable and honest. Initially, she starts snooping together with her new friend Poppy for fun – and to avoid unpacking all the boxes in her new house -, but then the investigation turns more serious and things hit closer to home when she starts suspecting that her partner Joe is hiding something.

I really liked The Expectant Detectives. I enjoyed the writing, the humour, the characters (especially the dogs), and the mystery where I figured out some of the things on my own, but I was mostly taken by surprise. Immersive, fun, and refreshing, The Expectant Detectives is a fantastic read!

From the get go this is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time - the perfect blend of murder mystery and downright comedy, it's highly enjoyable and still has a great twist. I loved how this was written and just how much fun it was to read. A light one but still good for those who enjoy a thriller, I would say!

I absolutely loved this book but must admit I started it with a little bit of trepidation. I began thinking that I’d made a bad choice and it was going to be another cozy mystery, which I’m not too keen on. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I loved it from beginning to end. I enjoy reading mystery/crime books that also have humour woven into the story and I found myself laughing out loud several times due to the funny bits.
I was also so involved in the pregnancy part of the storyline that I found myself almost panicking that Alice and Joe weren’t going to be organised and ready for Alice going into labour.
It was a nice easy but very enjoyable read .

An excellent mystery, full of good fun - what more could I ask for?

Alice is pregnant; along with her partner Joe they have decided it's time to leave London and move to the country - so the Cotswolds is where they settle. Desperate to fit in and find friends locally, they attend the local ante-natal class - where a dead body is found. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Alice - along with her crazy dog, Helen - begins to look the death. She is then joined by more women she met at the class. When another body turns up, they decide that the local police are missing things and determine to make a better job of investigating.

Oh, how I have loved this book! It's been a while since I had to stuff my hand in my mouth to stop myself laughing out loud when reading in bed beside my sleeping husband - I'm only glad the mirth didn't give me away! This is choc-full of fabulous characters and so many possibilities as to who was involved in what! Did I work it out? No - but I had great fun trying to. Totally fell in love with Helen the dog who was a real character. Entertaining to the very last and so very, very enjoyable. Definitely recommended to those who enjoy a good mystery with a few giggles thrown in. Another author to keep an eye on. 5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

Weeks away from the due date of their first baby, Alice and Joe make the adventurous move from London to the small Cotswolds village of Pemberton. Faced with unpacking and settling into their new home, as well as making arrangements for the imminent birth, they join the village antenatal class. Thrown together, they quickly find themselves at the centre of a murder mystery and with nothing else to keep the pregnant women entertained, they decide to do a bit of secret sleuthing themselves. With so many potential suspects and so many other mysteries cropping up, can they possibly solve it?
I absolutely loved this book. It took me back to the crazy days of moving house when heavily pregnant, antenatal classes and the unlikely friendships that develop through them. I laughed out loud at Alice’s comments and thought the mix of characters and their personalities was wonderful. Every time I kept thinking I’d worked it out there was another plot twist, so it really kept me guessing to the end. I loved Alice’s big reveal at the end - very much in the style of one of her favourite cosy police Murder mystery series!
Highly recommend this entertaining, funny, cosy murder mystery!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.

It’s been decades since I had my two sons. Born in the mid-eighties, it was the beginning of the whole natural labour, water birthing, NCT bonding (it was really cheap to join back then) and ‘breast is best’ movement. Except it stuck around. Had we done our pelvic floor exercises every day? Were we prepared for the breathing during contractions? We talked openly about constipation, piles and heartburn. Husbands would be there on the labour ward, helping us choose the right mood music when the time came. I was so disappointed when after 14 hours of natural labour I gave in and had an epidural.

We never talked about what to do with the baby afterwards. At least not until the midwife showed us how to fold a towelling nappy and gave us a free Guiness for the iron content. I lasted three months before I gave in yet again and resorted to Pampers. Same with breastfeeding. I lasted about three months. What a failure I was made to feel (by the books and magazines I read).

Oh how this novel took me back! Yes, things have changed. Terry nappies to disposables and now it’s all reusable TotBots. I attended antenatal classes at the hospital as well as the NCT. When they showed us a cesarean section I suddenly needed to pop out to the toilet, because it wasn’t going to happen to me. My first would be born in under an hour (like I was), ha ha. Actually, my second was, but that’s another story and I’m supposed to be reviewing the book – not reliving those forceps.

I found this book absolutely hilarious. I felt for Alice, I sympathised, I emphasised, I could relate to the naivety, the denial, the mess….the snacks. Especially the snacks. Though not to investigating a murder. Luckily that wasn’t part of the dynamic of our friendship group. We talked about knitting booties for baby (not really), would baby be late or early, what was involved in being induced – no-one planned to give birth naked in a yurt – they hadn’t become trendy yet – under a full moon.

Heavily pregnant Alice and her boyfriend Joe have moved from London to a Cotswold village – not a real one I don’t think – I live in the Cotswolds and I don’t recognise a Penton. They don’t want the baby brought up amongst the traffic and the smog of the city. They want a healthy life in the country, somewhere they can also walk their unruly dog, Helen. In my head I imagined Helen to be a crazy, short-legged, stumpy-tailed Jack Russell, probably because we lost our crazy, short-legged, stumpy-tailed Jack Russell eighteen months ago and I still miss her. But Helen is very different, all blond fur and long legs.

Alice doesn’t know anyone, but following Hen’s sudden delivery at the antenatal class, while a murder is going on downstairs (by that I mean the actual floor below, not Hen’s downstairs if you get my drift), she soon becomes friends with Poppy and her wife Lin, Ailsa from the commune (sort of) and of course Hen, plus hitherto unnamed baby.

Together, they try to solve the murder, much to the annoyance of Detective Jane Harris, who thinks they should stay out of it. But they won’t be deterred and Alice’s musings made me laugh out loud at times.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour

I’ll be totally honest and say I wasn’t sure what I was going to make if it. Never having gone through pregnancy and it many facets, which I know a lot more about now than I did before, I thought this may not be my cup of tea. However, it was both a funny and entertaining sort of chicklit cosy crime! The story centres around Alice who has moved to the village of Penton in the Cotswolds with her partner Joe after finding out, unexpectedly, that she is pregnant and thinking it would good to espouse a more laid back lifestyle than they had in London.

Briefly, when attending their first antenatal class there is a shock in store when firstly one of the women goes into labour shortly followed by the discovery of a dead body downstairs in the building. With a number of the mothers to be and their partners under suspicion Alice puts together an informal group of ‘expectant detectives’ to try and find the killer.

I absolutely loved Alice’s crazy dog Helen! Who calls their dog Helen? Some of the pregnancy detail was a little graphic for me but I’m sure a lot of mothers are going to really relate to it. The investigations did at times seem like they were secondary to their daily life for the characters but that was okay. The plot was good and I found the whole thing really very entertaining. A fun and engaging read.

Alice is eight months pregnant and decides to move to the Cotswold countryside with her partner Joe and their dog Helen.
Then the fun begins they live in a place called Penton which is the polar opposite from their former home in London, dream catchers , communes , essential oils and gong baths are just a few of the new experiences Alice encounters along with a couple of dead bodies.
Alice along with Hen( had her baby during an ante natal class ) , Alisa and Poppy ( expectant mothers) decide to do some snooping and amateur sleuthing to find the culprit behind the murders.
What ensues is a humorous and easy to read tale .
I like the characters they all have their quirks and flaws just like all humans do but this book is a fun and heart warming cosy mystery read..
I look forward to reading more from Kat Ailes .
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK.

Alice and Joe decide, at almost their baby's due date, that they've had enough of London and move to the Cotswold countryside for the quiet life. What they actually get is a murder mystery that starts even before they've unpacked. This is a perfect cosy mystery for anyone that's been through the whole antenatal class bonding sessions, where there always seems to be a Hen character! This was an enjoyable read, full of comments that makes me think that the writer might actually have experienced a fair few of the scenarios. The characters are great, the descriptions hilarious and the plot is enough of a mystery to keep you reading to the end, without taxing your brain too much.
I highly recommend giving this one a read if you're a mum and a fan of cosy crime.
Thanks to Netgalley for the free book in return for an honest review.

Alice and her partner move to Penton, a sleepy village in the Cotswolds. She is 8 months pregnant and they figured that it would be cheaper to live and bring up their child there.
They meet other expectant families at a Antenatal crash course held in the village. On the second session, one of the other ladies goes into labour after admitting that she had taken a herbal concoction supplied by the man working in the shop downstairs. When said man is found dead in the shop when the birth is over and everyone starts dispersing, a cold finger of fear runs through the assembled people.
Almost for something to do, Alice and her new friend Poppy decide to poke around a bit to see if they can find out what happened, ably assisted by their dogs and other expectant mothers.
Things do pop out of the woodwork, but not quite in the manner they were expecting!
A nice pacey cozy crime. I enjoyed it.

Alice and her boyfriend move to a small town ready to start their lives as parents. They however soon find themselves embroiled in a murder investigation. Alice wants to solve the crime whilst Joe has his own reasons for being there. Lots of secrets are set to be revealed but can a murder be solved too.

This was an interesting concept. Pregnant detectives solving a murder. I must admit it impressed me how much they did whilst so pregnant I certainly couldn't. The plot is a slow build as there's lots going on so the initial murder does get a little lost along the way. I did like the conclusion and hadn't figured out who the killer was. The ending was good and finished the story really well. A fun mystery with many relatable moments.

With their first child about to arrive, Alice and Joe have decided to leave the stress of big city life and move to the countryside – the village of Penton in the Cotswolds to be precise. The first people they meet is at the local antenatal class and needless to say that involves a few other pregnant women – the relaxed Poppy, the uptight Hen and Ailsa, a member of the local commune.

The first class is disrupted by two things – first of all, Hen gives birth and while all that is going on, the proprietor of the shop the class is taking place in drops dead. Anyone – well, anyone apart from Hen who was a tad occupied – could have slipped away and poisoned the man, but who would take the risk? And why?

Alice and her new friends decide that they better get to the bottom of things – not least because, in the police’s eyes, they and their partners are the prime suspects…

Right, I saw some of you slinking away from this review. Oh no, the Doc’s back on the cosy train again, why would I want to read a book about another team of mismatched women/pregnant women/pensioners/vicars solving a murder? Well first of all, this is actually funny. Second of all, it’s a pretty decent mystery. And third of all, it’s a damn sight better than books about the pensioners or vicar.

“The Expectant Detectives: The hilarious cosy crime mystery where pregnant women turn detective.”

I really hope that title on Amazon doesn’t put people off the book. I’ll be honest, if I’d seen it there, I’d probably have been put off reading it. But I didn’t, I grabbed an advance review via NetGalley so let me take the opportunity to convince you to take a look.

The narration is all first person from Alice and her sense of humour – self-deprecating and sarcastic – really hit home with me. I especially liked the way you’re given her responses to people alongside exactly what she wanted to say but had enough self-control not to. There are some nice little running jokes along the way that are very effective and the interactions between the four leads is convincing – it’s notable that by the end of the book, they’re still not a complete foursome of bestest friends ever.

The plot is teased out nicely and there’s quite a bit going on for the reader – not as in the majority of books that I would curse with the “cosy” label. There was something I forgot to say about Martin Edwards’ Sepulchre Street, namely that there weren’t any extraneous characters – everyone contributes something important to the plot, and this is certainly the case here. I’m not convinced that it’s completely clued – one of the red herrings certainly is – but there are certainly hints at the murderer.

In another attempt to stamp out that cosy label, it’s also not afraid to take things seriously when it needs to. An early sequence has Alice’s stupid-but-adorable dog Helen eating some poison and nearly dying. [Note for #doesthedogdieinthis?, I said nearly.] I think it was this sequence that convinced me that the book was something worth my time, as the narration takes an urgent, almost panicky air, even though it’s written in the past tense. There’s also an air of tragedy about the truth of the whole thing (something which is a little undercut by the second death though) – there’s a sense sometimes that Alice’s humour is natural and sometimes a shield when things are getting serious.

All in all, this was a very pleasant surprise. Readers who are waiting the next Marlow Murder Club novel from Robert Thorogood could do an awful lot worse than taking a visit to Penton while they wait.

PS Looking forward to seeing if this is going to be a series as the leads can’t be pregnant every time they investigate a murder. Can they?

A quirky, fun and entertaining murder mystery. The story dives straight in when Alice and Joe arrive at Pentonville, a little Cotswold village. Alison and Joe have moved from London to a rented cottage when Alice is 38 weeks pregnant. Whilst attending their first birthing class, one of the class actually goes in to labour and gives birth. Downstairs the energy of the building is found dead. Was it natural causes or was it in actual fact a murder?
Alice, Poppy, Hen and Ailsa team up to investigate. It seems like too many people in Pentonville are keeping secrets. The mystery seems to revolve around a commune that live in the local woods. Follow the girls as they set out to solve the mystery.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, love the four main characters and Helen the dog. I have already recommended the book to friends.

I was gifted an advance copy of the book by NetGalley. The views expressed are my honest opinion. I loved it.

I struggled to get into this book, I couldn’t really identify or empathise with the main characters, though this won’t be the same for many readers. It’s a cosy mystery, with a group of expectant mums turning amateur detectives. Set in the Cotswolds, when a young couple move there from the city.

It’s been absolutely ages since I read a Cozy Crime novel, and with the weather being so glorious recently, I felt it was the right time to pick this one up….what a treat..

In short, it’s about a couple who move out of London to the countryside so that they have space for their baby, and as a nicer place to bring child up in general. When a murder takes place, Alice, and her antenatal class (all on maternity leave and bore), decide to investigate.

This is hilarious, but also quite gripping, with loads of twists and turns. An excellent cozy crime!

My thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

Alice and Joe move to the sleepy town of Penton, with the idea of bringing up their first child in the country away from London. They soon find themselves caught up in a murder mystery, after a suspicious death at their birth class. Can they help solve the murder before the baby arrives?

I really enjoyed this story, the idea of heavily pregnant women turning detective was brilliant. I could really relate to the worries and experiences of the women, and the variety of personalities was perfect. I did get a little bit caught up with so many people introduced at once, but after a while this straightened out. It'll be interesting to see if there is another book after this one, and how that will work with multiple newborns involved!

I loved this. As someone who has recently(ish) been pregnant this resonated with me. So many relatable details about the wild ride that is first time pregnancy.
The characters , the tone on the narration and narator were funny and the story itself was full of intrigue and humour. I found it hard to put down.
Will there be a sequel in which they go back to being amateur sleuths with newborns strapped to their fronts?

My own criticism is that there was so much talk about the fear of the birth from the narrator and we never found out how it went. In a time of positive birth stories and people sharing their birth stories, I thought it was a bit of a shame to completely gloss over it.

Other than that loved it!