Two bodies, buried under the patio over thirty years ago.
When the police launch a murder investigation, they ask to speak to the cottage's former owner - Saffy's grandmother, Rose, whose Alzheimer's clouds her memory.
But it is clear she remembers something . . .
What happened thirty years ago?
What part did her grandmother play?
And is Saffy now in danger? . . .
Two bodies are discovered in the garden of No. 9 Skelton Place, leaving it’s recent owners – a pregnant Saffron and her boyfriend Tom in utter dismay. The police launch a murder investigation and inform the couple that those bodies have been buried in the garden for at least thirty years, and as a result will take some time to identify them. This leads Saffron and Tom, as well as some other characters we meet along the way, to launch their own investigation of sorts, unravelling the mystery of the murders that occurred in No. 9 Skelton Place all the way back in 1980. The woman at the center of that crime, Rose – Saffron’s Grandmother, still lives to this day, holding all the information they need to uncover what really happened back then. However, that information is not so simple to obtain, seeing as Rose is now suffering from Alzheimer’s.
This book was my first foray into the mystery genre and overall I found it to be an enjoyable one. The story is very much a “slow-burn” akin to an ITV crime series, immersing you into the lives of these characters and the events they find themselves in. Being a young man of 22 years who has been subjugated to a slew of marvel movies that have rendered my attention span useless unless there’s an explosion or an epic inter-species battle involved, I was impressed that this story succeeded in keeping me intrigued throughout, which is a noteworthy feat.
I have no real complaints with this novel, other than the fact that this genre is not particularly my domain, which is just down to personal preference. This however did not stop me from appreciating the tale being told, and indeed the way it is told.
Each chapter is dedicated to the perspective of a particular character, offering the reader a wide array of personal angles to view this story from. The story itself does not feed you all of the information at once, rather you are fed a crumb at a time, just as the characters are. This was the hook that kept me curious, kept me theorizing and ultimately kept me wanting more.
As the mystery unravels we encounter several unexpected twists and turns along the way, including a shocking revelation toward the end that I had no idea was coming. The characters themselves are quite believable, you can easily understand who they are as people and why they behave the way they do (With exception to Victor, who is just a pure knob) In addition to these aspects which make the story as engaging as it is, the author Claire Douglas writes in a style that is very easy to digest, making this book accessible to almost anyone.
Overall I found The Couple at No. 9 to be a pleasurable and intriguing read and would definitely recommend it to fans of slow-burn mystery stories. I’m not saying it could have benefited from a little bit of galactic warfare, but I’m not not saying that either.
Selected Quotes...
"Saffy has always lived too close to the well as Lorna used to put it."
"I glance at mum in the rear view mirror. She's taken her hat off and her dark brown eyes are bright with excitement, but there's something else too, a pain that she's trying to hide. I wonder what's really going on with her and Alberto. I always get the sense that my mother is running away."
"It's obvious that having me at sixteen ruined her teenage years. Something she certainly seems to be making up for now, judging by her facebook photos"
"our memories are forever evolving, so we only remember the version of the memory we last recalled rather than the original event."
About the Author...
Claire Douglas has worked as a journalist for fifteen years, writing features for women’s magazines and newspapers, but she’s dreamed of being a novelist since the age of seven. She finally got her wish after winning Marie Claire’s Debut Novel Award for her first book, The Sisters, which became a bestseller. She lives in Bath, England, with her husband and two children.
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