The couple at Number 9 A novel

Every house has its secrets, but not every house has skeletons in its yard. When pregnant Saffron Cutler is gifted a cottage that belonged to her grandmother, she is happy to be out of the city and in a quaint village in the Cotswolds. She and her partner, Tom, have begun an expansion of the kitchen, but the excavation comes to a stop when two sets of human remains are found. What happened there 30 years ago? Was her grandmother Rose involved? Rose's memory has been addled by Alzheimer's, but her ramblings lead the police to believe she was. Who was the menacing Victor she mentions? Who was Jean? Who was Sheila? Saffy's mother, Lorna, arrives and tries to piece together her memories of the toddler years she spent there. The stories of the three women play out in a shadowy narrative that is tense and compelling and often touching until the horrifying truth is revealed. This mindbender from the best-selling Douglas (Then She Vanishes, 2021) will hit the spot with fans of Fiona Barton and Paula Hawkins.

In 2018, Saffron Cutler, one of the narrators of this intricately plotted puzzle from British author Douglas (Do Not Disturb), and her partner are enlarging the kitchen of their cottage in Beggars Nook, a quaint Cotswold village, when builders discover a human skeleton in their back garden. Further digging uncovers yet another body. Forensic evidence indicates that the two--a man and a woman--were killed sometime between 1970 and 1990, years that overlap with the period that Saffron's grandmother, Rose Grey, occupied the house. Rose, now suffering from dementia, lives in a nursing facility. Her occasional flashes of lucidity seem to offer clues to what might have happened all those years ago. But danger isn't confined to the past. The discovery of the bodies awakens the interest of a murderer who will do anything to protect his secrets. Tension builds as the characters' backstories unfold through multiple perspectives, including that of one person whose relationship to the others isn't immediately apparent. Douglas does a fine job fairly misdirecting the reader. This gripping tale is sure to garner her new fans. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Aug.)