What’s buried beneath…

LIFE is good for Saffron Cutler, she’s just moved into a new home in the Cotswolds with her boyfriend Tom, the builders are there helping to make the house their dream residence, and they are getting ready for a new baby.

All is going according to plan… until the builders unearth two bodies in the back garden. Forensics indicate they have been there at least 30 years and the police need to speak to the previous owner of the cottage, but she just happens to be Saffron’s grandmother, Rose.

Suffering with dementia Rose is now living in a nursing home and her memory is increasingly confused. When the police call to interview her Rose fails to recall anything about her life in the cottage in Skelton Place, but it’s clear to Saffron that she knows something.

Back at the cottage Saffron and Tom’s new home is now a crime scene, the focus of the country’s media attention and the centre of village gossip. Afraid to leave their home they soon begin to realise that someone other than the police is keeping an eye on their cottage… who is the stranger and what is his connection to the bodies in the backyard?

Saffron tries to use her own happy memories of time at her grandmother’s house and whatever details she can glean from Rose to try and work out the identity of the couple at number nine. And when Saffron’s mother Lorna arrives from Spain she has her own, darker memories of the cottage to add to the mix. For much of the book the reader is learning about the residents of Skelton Place at the same time as Saffron, and is often one step ahead when it comes to working out who was where when certain events happened. The subplot of Lorna discovering who her father is also adds an extra dimension to the story.

The Couple at No 9 is a unique tale and one with a twist in the tail that will have you gripped to the final page.