Kat Ailes debut novel, The Expectant Detectives (#1,336) is set in a charming Cotswold village at her boyfriend's suggestion, but Alice doesn't adjust easily to the move from London. Add to that being close to her pregnancy due date, and you have a recipe for disaster. Their rented cottage is quaint, but is a definite fixer-upper. While dealing with repairs and unpacking, Alice manages to find a prenatal training group locally and meets a few of the local women her age in the class.
Things are proceeding well when one of her classmates goes into labor and Alice gets a bloody preview of what's in store for her. Meanwhile downstairs the owner of the shop has been murdered and now they're all suspects. Can Alice and her clutzy dog Helen solve the mystery before someone else gets hurt? The rest of the prenatal group band together hunt down the clues and the culprit.
The childbirth and pregnancy descriptions are more graphic than I cared for, but that's just me. I did think that this mystery would have benefitted by some judicious pruning. I found myself picking it up and putting it down, so it actually took me several months to finish reading it. That should have been a clue right there. And that may have been partly due to the cover art. Really did not care for it. I'd file this one under "Meh."
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