Alice, her boyfriend Joe, and Helen, their unruly dog, have moved from London to a rural village about three hours away. Alice and Joe want a safer, less expensive place to raise the baby they are expecting in a month. Within a week of their arrival, while they are in a prenatal class above an herbal shop, Mr. Oliver, a co-owner of the shop, dies. There had been no end to the chaos during the class because one of the pregnant women had gone into labor. Alice and a few other women from the class are trying to figure out whether Mr. Oliver was murdered and who would have done it. All they could definitively say was that Hen, the woman who had just delivered her baby, was not a suspect.
Alice and her new friends—some of whom intimidate her a bit—think that the nearby commune where the shopkeeper had lived until 20 years before, figures into the story. There had been a death at the commune 10 years ago, which also might be related. Meanwhile, some of the couples are having relationship issues.
Alice is a funny, sympathetic character who is trying to stop saying the first thing that comes to mind at any given time. This novel is the first in a series, with another one, Dead Tired, recently released.
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