The Expectant Detectives
My Rating:
For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy Cotswold village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their unexpected 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 antenatal class and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.
With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice sets out to solve the mystery and clear her name, 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.
Trigger Warnings:
Major (large part of the plot): Murder
Minor (small mentions): Cancer
Characters
- Alice – pregnant main character
- Joe – Alice’s partner
- Helen – their dog
- Maya – Alice’s best friend from London
Other pregnant women/partners in the class:
- Dot – the leader of the prenatal class
- Hen – Prenatal class attendee
- Antoni – Hen’s partner, suit man, works in pharmaceuticals
- Ailsa – Attended the class prenatal class, seems to be annoyed with everyone
- Poppy – also moved from London
- Ronnie – Poppy’s ugly dog
- Sultan – Poppy’s regal looking dog
- Lin – Poppy’s partner, a gardener
- Mr. Oliver – owns the store the class was in
- Camran – runs the local commune
- Ronald Pinkington – owns a lot of land in the area
- Rowan – Camran’s son
My Review
I put this book off when I first saw it on NetGalley thinking that having the characters be pregnant would be too niche of a storyline. I regret that decision because this book was actually done well, even with most of the main characters being either pregnant or a new mom.
While the book started off a little bit slow, it picked up towards the middle and I flew through the end. The mix of character’s personalities in the new friend group was entertaining at times. Hen, rich and prissy; Alice, slightly ditsy with a very amusing dog; Ailsa, chill yet slightly dark; and Poppy, instigator of most of the investigation.
This is a mostly light hearted read that gets better as you go. I enjoyed this book!
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.
Spoilers/Summary
Hen has her baby during their prenatal class.
Antoni killed Mr Oliver and then Ronald Pinkington. His sister, Jasmine – real name Nathalie, had joined the commune when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She thought natural stuff would help cure her and Mr. Oliver thought he was actually helping. Camran had tried to get her to get real help when her symptoms started to go downhill but she ended up dying from breast cancer.
Jasmine was Antoni’s sister. He saw Mr. Oliver when he was going to get the hospital bag and flipped – Mr. Oliver had given Hen some oils to induce labor and Antoni was worried that the baby was coming too early so he dumped a bunch of essential oils into Mr. Oliver’s drink – it ended up killing him.
He then killed Ronald Pilkington thinking it was Camran. He pushed Pilkington down a steep hill and it killed him. He thought that Camran was just as responsible but got Camran and Pilkington mixed up in the woods.
Camran is actually Joe’s father. Joe’s mother went by Flora when she was younger and had lived at the commune for about a year. There was a mystery between the 3 men, Oliver, Pilkington and Camran as to who the father actually was.