The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas

​    Three generations of one family (all women, of course, because that’s what sells these days) come to a terrible reckoning with their past at a small village cottage.
    The couple that’s living there currently, Saffy (the granddaughter) and her man are not the first inhabitants of number 9. This was a cottage they inherit from Saffy’s grandmother, who is now away with advance dementia. Saffy’s mom, Lorna, is off in Spain living her best life. All Saffy wanted was a larger kitchen. And then they found bones on her property. Two bodies’ worth of bones.
    Not quite an easy carefree inheritance she might have hoped for, but there it is. And so, the grandma is obviously hiding secrets, but uncovering what those may be from a dementia-addled mind won’t be easy. There’s a conventional investigation going on too, but really…this is a family business. And so, Lorna (a young hot mommy who Gilmored her baby out at 16) arrives from Spain and her and Saffy begin an investigation of their own. They will not like what they find, but eventually will learn to accept it.
     And so, yet another one of those thrillers, you know the kind, the ones that are so ubiquitously popular these days. Not the best of the bunch, but absolutely solid. Well plotted, well written, slightly too long but well-paced for its bulk, oodles of family drama with some very credible character writing and a few nice plot twists.
     If you ever thought Gilmore Girls might be spiced up quite nicely by a murder or two, if only to take attention away from that obscene bullet-train-paced dialogue, this ought to delight you. Plus, it’s British, which enhances all things in general.
     Entertaining. Fun was had, I’d likely read more by the author. Thanks Netgalley.