My last book of January, and I am thrilled to rate it with five shiny stars. I am such a sucker for multiple POVs and timelines, and this Claire Douglas novel nailed it. The characters that you meet in this mystery are compelling and left me now wanting to put it down. It was also a puzzle that I could not solve so I have not one critique for this book.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for allowing me to read an arc of this book.

This was the first book I've read by Claire Douglas, and it will not be my last. The writing and storytelling were so good. The characters were all so well written and likable.

I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives as well as the shifts from past to present. I'm typically pretty good on picking up on plot twists before they happen, but this book got me twice!

This was such a pleasant and enjoyable read. I can't wait to read more from Mrs. Douglas.

The Couple at Number 9 is Claire Douglas’ best work yet!!

This captivating thriller is the story of two generations: Rose and her daughter Lolly, and Lorna and her daughter Saffy. When Rose went to a care home due to her dementia, her daughter Lorna (aka Lolly) and granddaughter Saffy found out that she owns a cottage in the countryside that she has leased out for years. Saffy decides to move there with her boyfriend to start their family. While they are renovating, 2 bodies are uncovered. Piecing together what happened isn’t easy, as there were multiple tenants, and the timeline of the deaths as well as the identities of the deceased aren’t initially clear. As the police investigate, they have many questions for Rose, but she struggles to answer them with any clarity through the fog of dementia. Lorna Ajax Saffy tentatively mount their own investigation. After following up on a potential lead, Lorna is attacked on her way home. At this point, Lorna and Saffy realize that somebody besides Gran Rose has a vested interest in covering up the circumstances around the double homicide. Who was buried in the garden? Who else would want to keep these murders and the circumstances around them hidden?

The Couple at Number 9 is written from 4 viewpoints; primarily, from the viewpoints of Saffy, Lorna, and Rose. Theo is the fourth viewpoint, and initially I didn’t see how he fit in. However, Claire Douglas gives a few clues and I began to have my suspicious before the connection in the storylines is revealed. Each character is very much their own personality, and I appreciated how the character of Lorna developed throughout the book and how her relationship with her daughter improved. The unfortunate circumstances brought them closer together.

Thank you to Harper Publishing and Claire Douglas for the early copy! Coming to a bookstore near you in August - preorder using the link below!

𝑻𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈.   
  
Snowy days call for staying in and reading thrillers. Saffy and her boyfriend Tom inherit a small little cottage from her grandmother, 9 Skelton Place. With a baby on the way they begin renovating the place only to find two bodies buried under the patio from over 30 years ago. When the police launch a murder investigation, they ask to speak to the cottage's former owner - Saffy's grandmother, Rose, who unfortunately has Alzheimer's which clouds her memory. But she does remember something and when she mentions the names, Jean, Victor, Sheila, they embark on journey to identify the bodies and the exact role her grandmother played in it all.   
  
The Couple at Number 9 absolutely blew me away with its stellar, nail-biting plot. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical at first because it started off slow and I immediately disliked one of the main narrators Saffy. She was gullible and whiny, and from the moment she discovered the bodies she too dismissive, there are dead bodies buried in your garden and your grandmother owned the place why aren’t you more curious?! I much rather like her mother Lorna who is a little more aggressive and proactive in the investigation. As they dig bigger they find a wed of dark and twisted secrets that change their lives. It felt like everyone was hiding a secret and you were just holding your breath waiting for the next truth bomb to go off. My favorite parts of the story were the Rose letter entries from 1980, telling what really happened.   
  
This gripping and shocking story is also an emotional story of the relationships between mothers and daughters. Trigger warning this story also touches on sexual assault and abusive, obsessive relationships.   
  
I highly recommend if you like:   
- Dark murder mystery   
- Generational story   
- Shocking ending   
- LGBT representation

I love thrillers so when I saw this book in Netgalley plus the creepy synopsis, I was hooked! The first few chapters piqued my interest but I wasn't fully hooked. Slowly though, between all the alternating people and timelines, I lost even more interest, found myself skimming and wishing the book would finish.

The tricky thing with thrillers is that the author needs to be able to suck in their readers within the first few chapters. I found the writing with this book boring and one dimensional. Some of the phrases that the author would write were so "matter of fact" that I found myself saying "wait that's it?"

I'm bummed but I don't think I was the right reader for this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the best book I have awesome plot great characters and great twist and no spelling errors or anything else

This book has a complex plot with lots of viewpoints and timelines. I didn’t read this book in one sitting so I got slightly confused picking it up again and again and trying to find where I was was. Overall, this book had a good plot.

Thanks for the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

What a wild ride! Loved the multiple POV with different timelines between past and present. All the twists and turns kept me wanting more! So many secrets with all the charters. Some were minor and others were down right heartbreaking and disgusting! Really kept thinking I knew what was going to happen until the finally twist at the end!

This was my first Claire Douglas book and I wasn't disappointed! The writing, characters, and multiple points of view propelled me through the story to a great and slightly unexpected ending! I really thought I had it all figured out and then it was like BAM! And I loved that the author explored other topics as well - family, love, childhood, and identity. Overall, a great read. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!

*I received an advanced copy from NetGalley & the publisher Harper Perrenials and Paperbacks, in exchange for an honest review.*

I almost like these type of books. The multiple character POV's, the different timelines. I like the fact that these types of stories keep you guessing. This book was no different. I thought I'd have it figured out and then something would make me double guess. I did figure out a little earlier than anticipated what was happening but I hadn't out everything together. It was a good book, though a little drawn out. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it.

This book had a very intimate and personal feel. Told in multiple perspectives and two timelines, you felt like you knew the characters by the end of the story. While the plot moved at a slow pace, the mystery and consistent reveals kept you guessing at how things would play out. Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely adored this book. At first I was a little lost at times with all the story lines but once they started to come together they were much easier to follow. I loved the ending and how all the different stories combined and you finally found out who the bodies found belonged to. I really wanted to move into a tiny cottage in a small village, like the one described at number 9. One of my favorite books I've read in the last couple months.

Saffron "Saffy" and her boyfriend Tom are the proud owners of a quaint cottage called 9 Skelton Place. Once owned by her loving gran Rose, Saffy inherits the house from her mother Lorna, who lives abroad in Spain. Saffy and Tom are in the middle of a large renovation project at the cottage that comes screeching to a halt when the builders uncover the remains of two bodies in the garden. When the bodies are deemed to have been buried when Rose lived in the cottage, Saffy wonders what happened all those years ago. Unfortunately, Rose has dementia and cannot seem to remember anything.

Told from multiple perspectives, including Saffy and Rose, throughout a long period of time, The Couple at Number 9 was a great thriller. Claire Douglas created such 3-dimensional characters and truly made the story come to live. Well worth the read!

I had a really hard time staying with this one. It’s not like it was bad. I did like the writing. But maybe it’s my frame of mind. I’m literally hustling to nest as much as I can before my son is here, and can’t concentrate on much else. I did end up giving up on this one about 75% of the way in.

I really enjoyed this book. Character development was good. The plot was very interesting. Not a lot of typos.

9️⃣Book Review 9️⃣
Title: The Couple at Number 9
Author: Claire Douglas
Publisher: Harper Perennial and Paperbacks
Publish date: 8/1/2022
Rating: ⭐⭐. 5

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper for gifting me a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

Tom and Saffy have just moved into their grandmother's house at number 9 Skelton Place. With a baby on the way it seems the perfect time and renovations are going swimmingly. That is until the construction crew unearths two skeletons in the backyard.
The forensics team determines the bodies have been there for 30 years, dating back to when Saffy's grandmother Rose lived there. Did she know about the bodies?
Rose now has dementia and is living in a home, but police are determined to question her anyway. Will they unearth the killer? Or will it remain a haunting mystery?


I felt like this book had a lot of potential. The description from Netgalley really piqued my interest. Y'all know I love a good thriller. But after reading and dwelling on the book as a whole, it just didn't do it for me.
It was a VERY slow burn book and if it hadn't been for review, I may have DNF'd it.
The book switches perspectives between 4 different characters which just seemed a bit too much for me. In my opinion, two of these could have been left off entirely, or at least had much less focus time. One was meant to be a red herring but it didn't work out all that well.
The use of lesbian couple in the 70s was interesting as it was still extremely taboo then. And it was handled quite tastefully.
I didn't get super into it until about the last ten or so chapters and six chapters before the big reveal, I figured it out. The ending was lackadaisical and predictable at best. I hoped for so much more from this one.

When you think of you grandmother, do you know where she lived when she was young?
Claire Douglas looks into a family who’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s; But the police have a few questions for her
For back when she was young mother.
Come join the intrigue, murderous, heartbreaking, and coming of age story of The Couple at Number 9.
The ending is murderous!

A couple inherits a home from their grandmother. Their family is complicated. While renovating the house the couple discovers things that cause them the dig into the grandmother’s past and there’s so much to uncover.
I loved this book. I read it in about a day. I just couldn’t put it down. I fell in love with so many of the characters. Saffy, little Lolly, Rose, and Daphne. There were so many twists and the story was so creative. I felt for everyone in this story. It hit all my favorite themes. Crime, love, lgbtq+ themes, and mystery. I highly recommend this.

Oh my gosh, if I could rate this book more than 5 stars I would!! Such a thrilling, twisty novel that will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Each character has their own secrets, and with the shifting perspectives (and change in narration style), you get more attached and interested in each of them. I audibly gasped 5-7 times while reading, and the twist was one that I never saw coming.

This is the first novel I've read by Claire Douglas, and her writing style was so enthralling that I'm planning to read her others.

I can't wait for this to come out -- I'll be recommending it to everyone!

Thank you for the eARC.

I was SO excited for this when I read the synopsis, but that’s about as exciting as it got. This book did some dragging. I really feel like if it had been condensed more then I would have like it. It just seemed unnecessarily long. Still a good read though.