Dead Tired (The Expectant Detectives #2)
Finished: March 2024
Book Source: NetGalley
Book Publication Date: June 2024
The follow-up to The Expectant Detectives , a charming and hilarious mystery series following a group of new-moms-turned-detectives.
Alice didn’t think her maternity leave would involve so much, well, murder. Before becoming a proud new mom, she and her friends bonded more than a prenatal group usually would, as they became accidental amateur sleuths and solved a crime together. Now, with all this behind them and Alice’s son Jack somehow already a year old, she’s keen to finally catch up on some sleep. So when an opportunity presents itself in the unexpected form of an eco-protest, Alice and her friends willingly chain themselves to trees and settle in as an excuse to get some overdue rest—not the most comfortable arrangement ever, but at this point, they’ll take what they can get.
However, the next morning one of their fellow protestors is found strangled and any hope of a peaceful interlude is suddenly swept away. Soon Alice and her friends become entangled in a plot involving rogue artists, an enigmatic local entrepreneur, and nude protesting (optional), offering an unexpected—but not necessarily unwelcome—break from changing diapers and wrestling baby toys away from Helen the dog. Alice, whose success rate in solving countryside murder is at an all-time high (one out of one), cannot resist the chance to demonstrate her detective skills once more, and assembles her gang of new moms to investigate this latest mystery in their not-so-sleepy English countryside village.
Trigger Warnings:
Murder
Characters
Returning characters:
- Alice – main character
- Joe – Alice’s partner
- Helen – their dog
- Maya – Alice’s best friend from London
- Hen – single mom now, working at Aether
- Ailsa – mom to TWINS now, still into green things, living with her sister Jane, the detective
- Poppy –Alice’s best friend
- Ronnie – Poppy’s ugly dog
- Sultan – Poppy’s regal looking dog
- Lin – Poppy’s partner, a gardener
- Rowan – Joe’s half brother, lives in the commune
New characters:
- Maryam – leader of Earth Force, aunt of Sam and Raven, although she basically raised them
- Leila – member of Earth Force
- Raven – Leila’s boyfriend, nephew of Maryam
- Sam – Raven’s brother, photographer
- Norah – member of Earth Force, sort of like a mother figure in the group
- Marcus – Sam’s boyfriend, also an artist in his cooperative
My Review
The team of first time moms is back after they stumble upon another murder in their quiet village in the Cotswolds. As they try to navigate parenting one year olds and figure out who they are in this new stage of life, they find some purpose in putting on their sleuthing hats to solve the mystery of who killed a protestor.
Dead Tired by Kat Ailes perfectly captures the rollercoaster ride of early motherhood with humor and authenticity. As a mom to small children myself, I found myself nodding along to every sleep-deprived struggle Alice faces. Ailes beautifully portrays the love for her child alongside the longing for a glimpse of her pre-baby life.
There’s a little ambiguity surrounding the Alice’s intelligence that I just can’t figure out… and I think detective Jane feels the same way. The mystery itself was interesting and outside of some of the things I normally choose to read (protests, etc) but it was done well.
I loved that they built up the dynamic between Alice and her best friend Maya, who fearlessly embraces her true self without apology.
And let’s not forget Helen, the mischievous yet lovable dog, adding an extra layer of charm to the story. 🙂
Overall, Dead Tired is a delightful and relatable read that will resonate with any exhausted parent trying to navigate the chaos of parenthood — even if you haven’t yet read the first book in the series (although I think you should for the character development!).
Link to my review for the first book in this series, Expectant Detectives:
Spoilers/Summary
SPOILERS BELOW. Stop here if you do not want to read spoilers.
Who killed Leila? Maryam murdered Laila. During the protest, she overheard a radio news announcement that stated a body had washed up near where Sam lived. Leila had threatened to kill Sam and Mariam emotionally thought that she had done it, and it was Sam that had died. She strangled Leila with her shoestring out of passion.
Who killed Sam? Leila did in fact kill Sam. She was a chemistry major, so had good understanding of chemical reactions. She snuck a chemical into Sam’s dark room as her moisturizer. When this chemical reacted with another one of the chemicals, during processing of pictures, it created a toxic gas and killed him. She killed him because he took a picture of her at a protest and didn’t get her permission to sell it for printing. The picture ended up being of her at a protest of her very wealthy family’s new business. Her family was in the petrochemical business. After the picture was printed, they cut her off from her allowance and probably her inheritance. She was so angry with Sam that she decided to kill him.
What was going on with Owen and Aether? Owen was paying a city council member to give permits for him to put a solar farm in the area that there was actually protected flowers. Layla found out and started to blackmail him when she was cut off from her allowance from her family.
Who is Anonymous Richard? Anonymous Richard, who keeps showing up, was the actual owner of the patent for the wind turbine that Owens company was built on. Owen bought Richard out. In a twist of events, Norah is actually a co-inventor on the patent. She is recently going through a divorce and needs money, so is now coming after Owen, because of the patent that he is making money off of while she is broke. She is the person who threw the firecracker through Owen’s window.