The Carpool Detectives is a fictionalized account of an amateur cold case murder investigation by Chuck Hogan. Released 29th July 2025 by Penguin Random House, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
2020, pandemic looming, 4 moms who are transitioning from working outside their homes to full-time stay-at-home momlife, meet up and are drawn together over their shared love of true crime podcasts and cold case murder. For (American) readers who lived through the pandemic and just want to forget all about it, be warned that covid is a major character in the narrative, and there are lots and lots of discussions about distancing, masking up, etc. There was also some weirdly backhanded complimenting of the women's thinking and researching ability which came across (especially from a male author) as "wow, these gals sure are smart and clever, who would've believed it?!" which fell a bit flat. That's not a huge complaint though, and probably won't register with a casual read-through.
The pacing is methodical and sometimes a bit slow, not plodding, but definitely not high-octane. Happily, and unusually for true crime, the book's not sensationalized, there are no lurid crime scene photos splashed all over and it's written respectfully. The denouement and resolution are somewhat diffuse and vaguely unsatisfying. There's no "gotcha" moment for the bad guys with a slick courtroom climax.
It's moderately well written (especially for fictionalized true-crime), and a diverting read, especially for the genre.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition as well as die-hard true-crime fans.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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