Expectant Detectives #1
This charmingly goofy, messy, funny mystery follows a very pregnant Alice and her partner Joe as they forsake the busy (and expensive) chaos of London for “the country.” They’ve chosen the tiny village of Penton in the Cotswolds on the theory that a “posh hippy” community will be a good fit. They bring along their gorgeous, if stupid, dog, Helen, who makes the moving trip to Penton extra nightmarish by vomiting all over the car.
They jam their things into their cute, tiny rental cottage, sleeping on an air mattress. Alice and Joe seem to have mixed feelings on their upcoming blessed arrival and make a stab at joining their new community (and reality) by attending a pre-natal class, where they meet other pregnant mums in the vicinity.
Their first class takes off with a bang as one of the mums gives birth during class and the owner of the shop downstairs, which sells herbal remedies, is found dead over his tea. Ailes introduces her cast of characters via the class: the grumpy, partnerless Aisla; Hen and her partner Antoni, who seem more together than the rest of them (and it’s Hen who gives birth in class); and Poppy and Lin, an LGBTQ couple who seem the sanest and most loving of the bunch.
The women form a loose detection group, focusing on the local commune which appears to have its share of mysterious disappearances and deaths through the years. The dead man was a former member of the commune but had cut off all contact with its members years ago. There’s a young man named Rowan hanging around who seems to be conducting some kind of investigation of his own, and the two investigations are somewhat in conflict with one another, though Alice likes Rowan despite his prickly secrecy.
Ailes draws her characters well: the precise Hen, the loving couple of Poppy and Lin, and the super hippy-eco girl Aisla who is very judgy and also happens to be the sister of the cop investigating the case. Most of all she paints a picture of Alice, Joe and Helen (a hilarious dog whose terrible behavior assures that she is welcome nowhere), and their marriage, which appears to be foundering a bit as they await the birth of their child.
This is a very “young” book, as it’s about women expecting children and dealing with babies when they do arrive. It’s also an almost universal experience and if you have ever spent the night with an infant who won’t sleep, it’s not an unfamiliar one. Ailes injects quite a bit of humor into her narrative – Alice is figuring out her new community with a jaded Londoner’s eye and is not always feeling like she belongs. Sometimes she would rather be eating a cheeseburger in a McDonald’s parking lot than drinking rhubarb tea or eating zucchini bread.
The mystery part is a bit slippery. I wasn’t quite sure this group of new friends and fledgling detectives were going to arrive at a solution to the crime, but they do, after a couple wrong deductions. This is a sweet book if a tad long, but the humor and the characters made it a worthwhile read. — Robin Agnew