Alice and Joe are having a baby. They don’t thin London is the best place to raise their ray of sunshine, so they find a place in the Cotswolds to rent. As they both work from home, they can move where they want, so they found an inexpensive place in the small village of Penton and paced up everything they owned.

Mere weeks before the baby is due.

Almost as soon as they get to Penton, they have their first prenatal class. The class is held upstairs from a natural supplement store, and is an early clue for Alice that there are a lot of aging hippies in the village. The man who owns the shop tried to get Alice to give up her antacids (full of chemicals!) for his slippery elm bark. She turned him down, but she realized that the lifestyle she knew in London may not be all that compatible with Penton living.

The class didn’t change her mind, as one of the other pregnant ladies is the young woman who had given Alice dirty looks earlier in the day for her plastic bag. But through the class, Alice and Joe learn a lot about the upcoming birth (whether they feel ready for it or not). And maybe more importantly, they have met some friends who are also about to have babies, so they will have things in common.

As Alice and Joe work to get settled in their new home, and their dog Helen takes on the Cotswolds (she’s a bit wild, so she loves the country), they also start to face the reality of having a baby together. They hadn’t been dating very long before they got pregnant, so there are still some bumps in the road to becoming a family. And then they go to their second prenatal class. And everything breaks loose.

One of the mothers goes into full labor in the class, and the baby is coming fast. An ambulance is called, but the others in the room know that there is no way they will make it in time. Childbirth plays out in front of them in technicolor, with Alice being given the job of mopping up. Fortunately a very healthy baby is born, but when the ambulance arrives, the paramedics ask about the dead guy downstairs.

It turns out that the old man who owned the herbal store was murdered. And Alice wants to figure out what’s happened.

Maybe it’s the boredom of maternity leave. Maybe it’s the anxiety of changing so much about her life at once. Or maybe it’s her love of crime shows. But Alice is determined to find out what’s going on in the hippie town of Penton. And when also-pregnant Poppy’s wife Lin is accused of the crime, she joins Alice in the amateur investigation.

The two women waddle through town, to the local commune, and through the outlying woods with their dogs, finding clues, meeting locals, and trying to put the pieces together in a way that adds up to murder. But will they figure out who the killer is before they turn their sights to the women?

The Expectant Detectives is a fun debut mystery novel with delightful characters and truly unique detectives. These women are strong and smart, and they are not intimidated or discouraged (much). The blend of life changes for Alice and the murder investigations makes for a complex story, and the slow reveals of Penton’s history are intriguing.

I loved The Expectant Detectives. I loved that Alice found herself caught between the worlds of the big city she left behind and the new countryside life she’s trying to establish. Her relationship, the upcoming birth of her child, and the murder all blend together into a compelling story with lots of heart and humor. I hope to see these characters again, because this is a group of friends I’ll want to keep visiting with time and again.

Egalleys for The Expectant Detectives were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.