Review of The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas

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Huge thank you to @harperperennial and @harperaudio for the paperback and audio copies of this book.
This was a really quick and entertaining read for me. I liked the premise and felt for the main character. What made this one a bit disappointing for me is that I was able to correctly predict most of the twists and a few parts didn’t make sense to me. Overall a solid thriller and definitely look forward to the book by this author.

Quick synopsis: Saffy is pregnant and has moved into her grandmother’s old cottage with her boyfriend Tom. With renovations a body is discovered in the garden. The police must question her grandmother Rose who is in a home for those with memory issues. Saffy is insistent to find out the truth about the body in the yard.

This was my 100th book of the year! I can’t believe how many books I’ve read this year - so many great ones and this was one of them. I was so relieved this book ended up being amazing after a few disappointments.

Saffron, or Saffy, is pregnant when she and her husband move into her grandmothers old cottage. They’re working on adding an addition when two skeletons are discovered buried in the garden. The book is told through several points of view, including Saffy and her mom Lorna. During the course of the investigation secrets are uncovered and Saffy and her mom are unsure of everything they’ve ever thought to be true.

So many twists and turns with one that completely blindsided me! I love it when that happens. I really enjoyed this story. I’m not sure who’s POV I enjoyed the most as they were all great and brought something different to the table. I really enjoyed Saffy anxiousness and love of staying home instead of partying, and I really enjoyed Lorna’s free spirit. The other points of views were also great and I really enjoyed learning how they all came together as secrets were revealed. I gave this 4.5 stars and highly recommend you check this out! I want to extend gratitude to @netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Started out well and very intriguing but the multiple POVs made it a taaaaad bit drawn out. It was still a good thriller.

Not to be confused with The Woman in Cabin 10...

This book was only okay to me. I love a good mystery, but the best part of a mystery is trying to solve it as the story unfolds. Trying to solve a murder that happened 30+ years ago was not as much "fun". It wasn't as engaging of a novel as I like. When you power through as many books as a lot of us do in a year, you want to be absolutely captivated by the pages you're reading. The Couple at Number 9 did not do that.

Read this if…you like a mystery buried within a mystery buried within another mystery.

Thanks to Netgalley, Harper Perennial, and the author for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a tough one for me. It started out interestingly enough, but then it dragged on forever. There were a lot of characters in play here and multiple mysteries interwoven together that went far beyond the bodies in the garden. It alternated between the past and present as well as 4 or so POVS. I have to give credit to the author for keeping all the plots lines straight without having any plots holes.

Other than the pacing, I don’t really have any specific complaints. I can’t really pinpoint why this one was just okay for me, so it could have just been my mood at the time. If you like intricate mysteries that revolve around long buried secrets, you might enjoy this.

Special thanks to Harper Perennial and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

It's harder and harder to find a really good book these days, not the tented authors fault, it just feels like a book explosion and its hard to weed out the ones you'd really rather read than the mediocre. This book is not mediocre..

First off, I like multiple POVs and I love puzzles, the especially witty and clever kind, and in my opinion this book is unique that way.

Saffron,"Saffie", pregnant with her boyfriend' Tom's .baby is thrilled when her beloved grandmother Rose, gives them her home because she's in a home for the elderly struck with debilitating Alzheimers Disease.

So when the couple decide to .ake some renovations, the builders find 2 bodies buried in the backyard around 30 years ago, most likely murdered. The problem is Rose was living there 30 years ago and now her past is a blur. She did have a tenant named Daphne around the time, who is now nowhere to be found..

Saffie's young mom, leaves her young boyfriend and flies from Spain to help Saffie with this mystery.

Who did it and why? The only one could be Rose to at least remember enough to say what happened or did she do it or know who did? I mean she was living there and owned the home.

I love a good puzzle and this book doesn't disappoint.

I really liked the cleverness of the author and I hopetoread more from her in the future. 4 stars!

This one is almost 4 stars for me.

Fast pace, captivating and twisty thriller but for some reason it was missing that “Wow” factor to give it full 4 stars. I did enjoy it and never was at a point where I was bored or wanted to put it down but it didn’t really stand out from other thrillers/mysteries. The story was well written with different POVs and timelines, which I liked.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC in exchange for my review.

*** BOOK REVIEW***
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Title: The Couple at Number 9
Author: Claire Douglas

The beginning was really descriptive to the point of excess at times which caused some wordy sections. Thankfully as the story went on that seem to go away.

The story was good enough for me to keep reading. I became invested on the mystery. I did figure out the plot twist pretty early on. So a little bit of wanting to finish might have been to see if I was right.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Publisher for a copy of The Couple at Number 9 in exchange of an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for lending me this ARC.

3.25 stars

I wanted to love this story. The beginning hooked me, drew me in deep, and held onto me until Part 3. To be honest, the book feels like two different authors at this point and the story loses its enchantment going forward.

I think the biggest issue I had with the novel overall was the icky trope of the lesbians who absolutely need a child or they aren't complete bullshit. I think it's gross to push that thought a lesbian is so desperate for babies and that they can't be complete without one. Good on Audrey for realizing that wasn't what she wanted--Rose would have been much better off if she weren't the victim of this outdated 1970s cliche.

My second issue with this novel was the idea that the investigators were just invalid ninnies and never follow up with any of their own investigating. Seriously! The main protagonists do all the investigating and find all kinds of leads and evidence that the cops couldn't, and every time they have a hunch (Sheila is Daphne but the identities were stolen, Davies threatened us but we told the cops and nothing happened after all), the cops just accept this newfound info and accept it as the word of God himself without any follow-up.

The Davies thing in particular was interesting because he threatened the women and never followed through with said threats, but later is arrested and discovered to be a shady criminal. So, why did he not follow through with his antagonizing of the main cast?

This leads into my final issue, which is the perfect ending. The cast doesn't really suffer anything, every thread is tied up into a neat bow and packaged in an unrealistic finality. The characters don't seem to suffer too much from all of the twists and skeletons that have dropped out of the closets on top of them. And everyone lived happily ever after uwu :3 Don't mistake me--I'm all for a good ending. But, this felt too peachy and almost forced. Everyone gets pregnant, everyone is happy and sane. Despite their entire family histories being so daunting and filled with lies.

I loved the concept of this story and the idea that Rose was actually Daphne all along. I loved the flashbacks of Rose actually being her letter to Lorna. All of that was really neat and not too overdone. However, the negatives outweighed the positives in this, and if it weren't for Daphne and Rose's POVs being so strong, this book wouldn't have made it to my 'read' shelf and would have gotten tossed into the DNF pile.

Thriller lovers: you’re going to want to read this book!

Compulsively readable, this is a thriller done right. Mystery, suspense, short chapters, faster pace. I didn’t solve this one until the very end. I can’t wait to read more books by this author!

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Thank you Netgalley and Harper perennial for the complimentary ebook. I loved it!

Pub date: 8/2/22 Available Now!

There's nothing like the magic of a well-crafted slow burn, and The Couple at Number 9, definitely falls into the category of slow-but-must-know. Claire Douglas does an amazing job of dropping the perfect amount of clues and weaving them together that I was totally invested in knowing the who-done-it.

4.5/5 stars

My first book by this author was a gripping and multi-layered story told through alternating POVs. The action begins with young couple Saffron and Tom, who have recently moved into the cottage at No. 9 Skelton Place. Saffron's gran, Rose, gifted them the cottage, and with a baby on the way, they're happy to have free housing. In the middle of a home renovation, workers unearth two bodies buried under the patio and suddenly, the newlyweds' quiet country retreat is swarming with reporters and the police start asking Rose questions. The only problem is, she is suffering from dementia and only remembers bits and pieces of her time living in the house nearly 40 years ago.

The central mystery of the two bodies-- who are they, what happened to them-- is compelling. The various POV characters are Saffron, her mum Lorna, a young man named Theo, and flashbacks from Rose's perspective. I was totally immersed in the story and enjoyed all of the different POVs. The mystery's conclusion is surprising and satisfying. Overall, this is a solid mystery read, not *too* dark, set in a small English village. I think my fellow mystery lovers will enjoy this one and I suspect it would be entertaining on audio.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

Saffron and Tom move into her grandmother's cottage, Number 9 Skelton Place and when they decide to start some renovations on the place, two skeletons are discovered. Saffron and her mother, Lorna are then on a mission to discover who the two skeletons belong to. This book was fantastic. I couldn't put it down. Definitely one of the best books I have read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller.

The Couple at No. 9, by Claire Douglas, is a twisty, domestic thriller, that is quite lengthy, but also rather fast-paced and filled with surprising twists and turns.

Saffron and Tom are the new occupants of number 9 Skelton Place, unexpectedly bequeathed to the family when her grandmother enters a home for Alzheimer’s patients. During an extension project, the construction crew unexpectedly digs up two bodies in the garden and a multi-faceted investigation ensues, with several parties seeking answers. Though grandmother Rose lived in the cottage at the time the bodies were buried, she can provide very few answers.

This story follows two timelines, past and present, which work together to flesh out the full mystery. The Couple at No. 9 is a slow-building thriller with some rather unique elements that add to the mystery, as well as a steady stream of shocking reveals throughout the story. In this novel, the author explores family relationships, various forms of domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, infertility and dementia. There are a few components I did not care for, but all-in-all, this was an enjoyable and intriguing story.

I was really excited to read another book by Claire Douglas since I had read Just Like Other Girls earlier this year and really enjoyed it, but unfortunately this one fell a little bit flat. I still enjoyed the way the story was told between the three characters and how they all intertwined to tell the story, but it felt a little too predictable for my liking, and a little too slow. The middle dragged quite a bit, and by the time all of the action happened at the end I had figured all of it out so it wasn't as enjoyable for me. I still really enjoy Claire Douglas's writing and how she tells a story, so I'd absolutely still read more by her and would recommend this to people who love slow burn mysteries, it was just a little bit of a miss for me.

Thanks to Harper Perennial for the free book.
This is a slow burn whodunit mystery. At first, I was invested in these bodies in the garden and how they got there. As Saffy and Tom start exploring their homes history while the police are also investigating, the story gets interesting. This is a book full of family secrets and past events that slowly catch up to the future. But it was slow. I feel like it didn't have to be 400 pages to let the mystery burn a bit. I found myself skimming some parts that weren't important. I also had the audio and had it going fairly quick while listening. With the slower plot, I also figured out all of the twists because I had time to piece everything together way before the book disclosed what was going on. However, I didn't mind the side plots and was glad the end of the book was set up to resolve all of the other plot points going on in the book.

This was my first Claire Douglas book and it was a spooky one! Saffron and her boyfriend move into a cottage that once belonged to her Grandmother and as they begin renovations they uncover a buried body.....! The police launch an investigation but their primary source, Saffy's grandmother Rose, is in a care facility for Alzheimers which makes her more than a little unreliable. Will they be able to get to the bottom of what happened so many years ago?

The story is told from several perspectives and over different timelines spanning 30 years. The author has strong characterization but the plot / twist were predictable and thus lost some of the books suspense for me.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, quick read perfect for summer vacation!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC - The Couple at Number 9 is out now!

Thank you Netgalley & Harper Perennial for an eARC of The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas.
This one is longer at 400 pages yet packs a punch. It felt slower at times but didn’t take away from the story (there’s a lot of backstory here, and it’s needed). Loved the multiple POVs, and multiple twists! I’m a fan of this author and look forward to seeing what she comes up with next. This one went in a direction I was NOT expecting and is truly creepy! RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Sometimes you just want to curl up with a good mystery and The Couple At Number 9 certainly delivered!

This is my first Claire Douglas book and it certainly won't be my last! I really enjoyed the POV from three different generations of women: Rose (the grandmother), Lorna (the mother) and Saffy (the granddaughter and mother-to-be). There is also a fourth POV- Theo- but you have to wait a while to find out how he ties into everything., which adds just the right layer of intrigue...

And the twists?! Yeah, those I did not see coming from a mile away 😶

Read this book if you like:
+ Multiple POV
+ Deep buried family secrets
+ Lots of twists and turns
+ Character development
+ A good whodunnit

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada and The Killer Crime Club for an advanced copy. Pub Date is TODAY (August 2)!!

This book was good, there was just SO MUCH going on that it was hard to keep track of who was who at times. If you did manage to keep track of it, it was an awesome whodunnit tale that I ended up really enjoying - however I did end up guessing the major plot twist long before it was revealed. 3 stars, but they were very enjoyable ones!