Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Date of publication: June 4th, 2024
Genre: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Adult
Series: The Expectant Detectives
The Expectant Detectives—Book 1 (review here)
Dead Tired—Book 2
Purchase Links: Kindle | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat
Goodreads Synopsis:
Being a new mom is murder.
Alice didn’t think her maternity leave would involve so much, well, murder. Before becoming proud new moms, she and her friends bonded more than members of 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, Alice is keen to finally catch up on some sleep. So when an opportunity presents itself in the unlikely 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 protesters 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 (optional) protesting, 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.
First Line:
There used to be an advert for Boursin herby cheese that showed a couple enjoying a picture-perfect picnic in a meadow-only to zoom out and reveal a combine harveswter heading straight for them.
Important details about Dead Tired
Pace: Fast
POV: 1st person (Alice)
Series: Dead Tired is the 2nd book in The Expectant Detectives series.
Content/Trigger Guidance: Dead Tired contains themes that include classism, alcohol consumption, dead bodies, death of a partner, death of a sibling, grief & loss depiction, strangulation, murder, and poisoning. Please read carefully if any of these triggers you.
Language: Dead Tired contains mild swearing and language that might offend some people.
Sexual Content: There is no sexual content in Dead Tired.
Setting: Dead Tired is set in the town of Penton, England.
My Review
I had been waiting for Dead Tired to come out as soon as I had finished The Expectant Detectives. I couldn’t wait to see what trouble Alice, Hen, Poppy, and Ailsa could get into. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. This book had me laughing and trying to figure out who killed Leila and Sam.
Dead Tired is the second book in The Expectant Detective series. It cannot be read standalone; you need to read book 1 to understand what is happening in book 2.
The main storyline in Dead Tired revolves around Alice, her friends, a protest group, two murders, and Alice and her friends (minus Hen) investigating them. The storyline has a nice blend of humor and suspense.
The mystery angle of the book was terrific. The author kept who killed Leila and Sam under wraps until almost the end of the book. There were many red herrings and misdirections from the author, so when it was revealed, I was shocked and saddened. I was also shocked by the murder of Sam and why that person did it.
I enjoyed the humor in the book. As a mother of three, I related to Alice, Poppy, Hen, and Ailsa. I could see myself in each of them. Everything was relatable, from Alice’s dirty house to Ailsa’s crunchy mothering. The first birthday scene had me in stitches, as did the scene where Alice stripped Aurora and put Jack’s clothes on her so she could get dirty.
The end of Dead Tired was typical. I liked how Alice figured everything out and presented the case to everyone. The author also left enough wiggle room with the last sentence in the epilogue. I will be eagerly awaiting book 3.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and Kat Ailes for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Dead Tired. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
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