Dead Tired

Kat Ailes's hilarious second cozy mystery, Dead Tired, gives a quartet of "new mum" amateur sleuths another case to crack--and plenty of baby messes to clean up. After solving a murder that occurred during their prenatal class (depicted in The Expectant Detectives), narrator Alice and her friends Poppy and Ailsa are hoping for a quiet end to their maternity leaves. But when they join a climate protest at which a young woman ends up dead, the three friends--with babies and dogs in tow--begin investigating. Complicating matters is the fact that their friend Hen is the new assistant to the CEO of Aether, a local green energy company with ties to the victim.

Alice adores her young son, Jack, but she's become bored with diaper changes and soft play. Having another crime to solve perks her up, though she knows Hen is worried that the friends' investigation will jeopardize her job. Soon Alice, Poppy, and Ailsa are embroiled in the drama of the protest group, questioning its members and poking around a photography darkroom in search of clues. Ailes deftly balances the mystery plot with baby-and-dog shenanigans (usually instigated by Alice's dog, Helen), and wry exchanges among the friends. She also expertly skewers the self-righteousness that often pervades both camps of the renewable-energy debate. The mystery's solution proves noteworthy, but the novel's real delight is its zany but utterly realistic rendering of life with young children: the brain fog, the wacky situations, and the deep bonds that form between exhausted parents. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

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