I have just finished reading this book and I must say that it was such a good read! It is set in Belgium, mainly Ghent, 40-50 years ago. I would never have guessed what was behind the door with nine locks but it was a gripping tale that continually surprised. It was a masterfully crafted plot and well written. The flawed characters are believable and shocking too as their perverse motivations become clearer. There is only one truly likeable character by the end for me. Which one is it?

I really enjoyed this historical mystery, it combines both genres brilliantly to create a unique and clever story.

The setting of post war Flanders is splendidly realised, I felt immersed in time and place and can fully appreciate the cover quotes describing the novel as ‘cinematic’. It was the perfect setting for the intelligent and complex mystery which unfolds.

It was refreshing to have two strong female main characters in Adelais and Saskia, I admired their ingenuity and ambition to thrive in a man’s world. Adelais in particular is a character that you can’t help rooting for.

In terms of the mystery element, the game of cat and mouse between Adelais and Major de Smet builds suspense as their paths circle closer together. In addition there is the mystery surrounding Adelais family and the reason for their downfall, which is gradually revealed as the story progresses. If that isn’t enough there are also a couple of other surprises, that I didn’t see coming, which provide the novel with a very satisfactory ending.

I think fans of historical fiction will enjoy this one and it is a must for anyone who enjoys a cleverly constructed mystery.

The House with Nine Locks is a wonderful, immersive and original historical novel with the best cast of characters I've come across in a long time.

From the publisher:
"In post-war Flanders, Adelais de Wolf's family is slowly, inexplicably, falling apart: her mother evermore lost to religious devotion, her father to alcohol. But with the death of a beloved uncle, Adelais finds herself in receipt of an unexpected legacy: a shuttered house in a rundown district and its contents – contents that hold the promise of independence and wealth. All that is required is application, nerve, and a willingness to break the law."

I was drawn to The House with Nine Locks initially because it's set in my home country, Belgium, which is relatively rare for English novels. And I loved 'seeing' the places I know as they would have been in the late 1940s. But the novel is wholly original not just for its setting: the story is unique, the characters distinctive and the plot continually surprising. Not with contrived twists, but due to the characters' individual choices and actions. It's intelligent, insightful and imaginative, with scenes that are vividly brought to life.

There's Adelais, a determined, independent young woman who refuses to let herself be defined by her physical disability (from polio). Her rather ruthless but staunchly loyal friend Saskia. Sebastien, who doesn't fully succeed in emancipating himself from parental expectations. De Smet, the morally dubious police inspector. These and the other characters are portrayed in all their complexity. No cardboard cut-outs here.

I love Philip Gray's writing style. It's a classic, British literary style, deceptively simple. Very easy to read and lose yourself in, in a way that makes you forget how precise and careful the language actually is. The dialogue is very true, each character having a distinctive voice. And surprisingly, Gray also has managed to capture the 'spirit' of Belgium in this novel. Hard to sum up a national spirit in a few words; suffice to say there's a definite feeling of Simenon! A certain Belgianness ('belgitude') pervades the novel.

Indeed it's altogether so original, but with a sense of real people, that I frequently found myself wondering if it were based on a true story (and if the author had strong connections to Belgium).

Very hard to say more without spoilers, but I will say that this is the most gripping and interesting story I've read in a long time and I recommend it 100%.

Loved this book.

Looking at the cover I was expecting something more of a mystery/whodunnit but I was completely wrong.

Adelais de Wolf is a young girl who has a weak leg that means she cannot do all the things other children do. Her parents try to help but the real saviour is her mysterious uncle, Cornelis, who refuses to pander to Adelais and instead gifts her a hand operated cycle betting her that she cannot make a long ride. Adelais is not one to shy from a challenge and on one ride she finds herself flung into the rescue of a boy. It changes her whole life.

I loved this book. It starts slow and Adelais suffers all the same problems as any young girl who wants to be something she cannot be - either through birth or physically or choices that are made for her. After she saves the boy's life though she realises she can do anything.

The novel really changes tempo after this and Adelais begins adulthood with a whole new life which brings her into a seedier world that she must hide from all but her closest childhood friend.

The story goes in directions I never saw coming. The plot is unlike anything I've read before. Adelais herself is a likeable and engaging character who you root for throughout (despite the fact that she does not play by the rules - legal or ethical). I cheered her all the way through.

Philip Gray has written a remarkable book that I looked forward to reading. I wanted to finish it but I also wanted it to last longer.

Brilliant. Highly recommended.

This book is a slow burner, there were points I wanted to give up but I am glad I did not. Once the book got going and everything started to come together I was gripped. Very clever story with lots of twists and turns. I hope their is another story featuring Adelais and Sebastian.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This was an engaging crime story set in the murky world of forgery. The main character, Adelais, the daughter of an engraver, sets out on a journey into this world to become an expert and reap the rewards including a lucrative hotel business. I found the cast of characters interesting and believable, and although the pace felt a little slow at times, it kept my interest with twists and turns in what develops as a cat-and-mouse story. However, it’s unclear who is the cat and or the mouse. There were some excellent visual scenes of vespa scooters darting across the city.
Overall, this was an entertaining story with perhaps an open door to another story in the future. Well worth reading.

Thank you, Netgalley, the publisher and author, for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Adelais, partially disabled by polio meaning she must wear a leg brace and use a stick, is a determined young woman. Her parents are each increasingly absorbed in their own mental turmoil for reasons she does not fully understand. Her father is neglecting his business and has turned to drink, and her mother has embraced a life of prayer and good works in an effort to seek forgiveness for some unknown sin. Only her Uncle Cornelius recognises Adelais has the necessary spirit to overcome the obstacles she faces, setting her challenges such as learning to use a handcycle. He describes them as kindred spirits and treats her as a kind of protege, seeing in her a strength of will her parents seem no longer to possess.

Adelais’s success gives her the confidence to tackle other challenges, such as learning to dance, although she also has another very particular reason for wanting to do this following a chance encounter. That encounter gives rise to a friendship and a shared dream but one which will require a huge amount of money to achieve. The property she inherits on the death of her uncle which, curiously, given its rundown state is protected by nine sturdy locks and latches, offers a means to achieve this. She sets about acquiring the skills required with the dogged determination her uncle must have hoped and planned for. It’s an activity that involves months of practice to achieve the necessary degree of perfection and, having mastered it, Adelais embarks on a criminal enterprise with the help of her friend Saskia for whom the whole thing is something of a lark. They have success beyond their wildest dreams but slowly things begin to fall apart.

Meanwhile Major de Smet of the Federal Gendarmerie is obsessed with a crime that has frustrated his efforts to solve it for years. It’s become a personal crusade, one he approaches with fanatical zeal spending hours poring over evidence he has accumulated and trying to detect patterns that will lead him to the culprit. His life in other respects has been a failure but solving this could bring him the recognition he craves. His superiors have come to think of it as a lost cause and a waste of police time but he’s determined to prove them wrong.

Although we always know more than both characters, the tension comes from Adelais never realising quite how close she becomes to being discovered and de Smet never quite realising how close he is to solving the case, or how easy it is to be distracted by prior assumptions.

By this time in the book you may have forgotten the events of the opening chapter but in a series of revelations we discover the answers to many things. It’s a brilliantly constructed bringing together of many threads in the story. But for Adelais, it sheds an entirely new – and unwelcome – light on the enterprise she has been engaged in leaving her with some difficult moral choices.

The House with Nine Locks is an enthralling historical mystery. I loved Adelais and the skilfully crafted plot kept me turning the pages, including looking out for the items that feature on the cover.

This was an intriguing mystery set in a period and place I know very little about and after a slow start it became an gripping read.
Adelais, blighted by polio which has crippled one of her legs, is born into a religious family. As WW2 ends her father finds it hard to get work, so the family is barely making ends meet. Along comes Uncle Cornelius who believes despite her disability, that Adelais can do anything.
The characters in the story are all completely different and well drawn, from Adelais very pious mother, to her drunken father and her friend Saskia, who is somewhat wild and unreliable initially. To say more about any of them or more about the plot would spoil the story for another reader but suffice to say no one quite turns out to be what they seem.
As I said, a rather sluggish start but the book picks up pace and I very much enjoyed it. There was an intriguing amount of detail about one activity in the story and the setting and historical details read well.
With thanks to Netgalley and Vintage Books for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

This is a very interesting book to read as I don’t normally read these types of historical books. Both the book cover and the blurb is what drew me in and so I had to give it a go!

In the beginning, it was quite slow paced as it’s trying to build up a background story of young Adelais and her family members but around 35% into the book, the pace starts to pick up from there and I could not stop reading. When Adelais was much older, she finds out that her Uncle has passed away and her name was in his will which his shuttered house gets passed onto her. She has no idea what had been going on in the house however as time went by, she finds out what her uncle had been working on in that house. She follows in her uncle’s footsteps and that’s when she experiences a whole new life ahead of her.

I think every character in this book was very captivating in their own way. I definitely really enjoyed Adelais and Saskia’s friendship as well as their business partnership and also loved experiencing Adelais and Sebastian’s relationship. The author’s writing style was very good and was quite easy to follow through.

This book was definitely a thrilling cat and mouse chase as it had been described and it was definitely intriguing to be on that journey with Adelais. It was lovely to dive myself into the 1950s, 60s and 70s era where there wasn’t that much advance technology involved. Also, there was this plot twist that took me by surprise which I did not expect and I will not spoil it at all!

This book eventually became a very entertaining read but it took a lot of determination not to give it up. The slowness of the pace of the first third of the book was painful. Thankfully it did pick up and all the layers of the story began to become interesting. In the end this was a cleverly constructed plot with a surprising ending but the slow beginning let it down.

A very clever book, which was not at all what I was expecting. I was totally caught up in the story, and the ending, although satisfying, was very unexpected. I will definitely be recommending this book.

I really enjoyed reading this. It starts giving the impression that everything is going to be a bit too goody goody with Adelais the girl with Polio rescuing her Prince Charming from drowning in the river then becoming best friends with Sebastian despite the difference in their backgrounds. But after Adelais receives the keys to the house with nine locks , the story becomes much darker with Adelais in cahoots with Saskia a wilder childhood friend. Their relationship is interesting and the reader is never sure what Saskia is going to do next or what her motives are , while Adelais is more simply trying to live out a dream made possible by her uncle Cornelius who dotes on Adelais. Some event in the past has affected her parents deeply with her mother turning to religion and her father to drink. Throughout the book we gradually discover what events in the past are behind these changes and how a major forgery enterprise has influenced things.
Major de Smet is the Flemish gendarme who is investigating the bank note forgeries and we soon discover that as well as being dedicated to his work he is also a bit too obsessed with this case for his own good, especially as there is rivalry and ill feeling between the Flemish and the French speakers in postwar Belgium.
The characters were all very real and believable and the story kept me hooked , always wondering whether De Smet was ever going to solve the case.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Vintage for the ARC

If you like mystery, you will easily like this book.
But if you had a reading experience similar to mine, having read mysteries when younger, and started to look for more than the mystery, you will love this book (phew, such a twist there).
Set in 1950s-1960s Belgium/Flanders, based on the movie references, we follow Adelais. She has a leg disability resulting from polio.
Adorable Adelais has adorable friends.
The story has many layers, one of which is the mystery behind what was left to Adelais by her uncle.
Forgery, guessing, anticipation, solidarity, standing up for yourself were some of the themes very well dealt with in this book.
The story took a while to start, however once it did, it was engaging and fresh.
I enjoyed the writing thanks to the detailed depictions. Cary Grant - and one particular prince’s comparison was a funny detail - the story had its light moments.

Unfortunately this book just isn't for me, and I have decided not to finish it, around page 100.

It's felt like a slog just to get through the first 100 pages because, really, not much seems to be happening. Just the events of the first two sentences of the blurb haven't yet happened, and another review suggests I'll have to wait till at least the 30% mark.

It's written well and, from what I've seen, doesn't sound like a bad book at all and probably would have been something I would have enjoyed if it had just picked up quicker.

When Adelais inherits a house in a run down part of Ghent soon discovers why it has nine locks on its doors and bars on the window. The house and its contents changes the life of this young woman for ever. and from them she literally forges a completely new life. From being a poor, lonely girl with a prosthetic leg, absentee mother and drunken father she succeeds in becoming the glamorous hostess of her own elegant hotel.
Phillip Gray has set this novel in the 1950's and has succeeded brilliantly tin conveying the atmosphere of that post-war era. The background of poorly lit streets, seedy bars and drearily dressed people , where the only entertainment seems to be the cinema and the occasional ball, utterly justifies why Adelais would do almost anything to break free.
Yes, there are one or two moments where there may be too much reliance on co-incidence to drive the plot forward, but these are minor niggles in what is a genuinely absorbing book. All the characters are sharply and empathetically defined and the twists and reveals in the plot come as genuine surprises.
The story's originality, its well balanced pace and the excellently nuanced definition of the characters thoroughly merits a 4 star rating and I highly commend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense and surprise in their reading.

Remarkable tale!
We are in Brussels post WWII with a fire at a warehouse where engraving is done. The dead body of the nightwatchman Verlinden is found leaving his wife Lisebeth a widow with two children in poverty. Major Salvator de Smet is the police inspector with a photographic memory investigates - is it a simple case of accidental death or are there political links (Flemish/German collaborators - even Communists) and then concerns over the engraving business which provided printing for bank notes.
The characters are incredibly interesting from the beginning. Adelais de Wolf is the daughter of a watchmaker who is also a drinker and gambler. Her mother suddenly turns to religion and becomes neglectful of her daughter who, suffering from a deformed leg due to childhood polio has to rapidly be independent.
Kindly Uncle Cornelius loves his niece "You've sharp eyes, little wolf" and gives her a tricycle to ride using handlebars. On her trips out she literally bumps into then saves a young boy Sebastien and their friendship, dreams, growing love spans the story in affectionate and arc a lot of the plot.
Along with her female friend Saskia, Adelais is later left another life changing inheritance from her uncle when he dies. This will dramatically change her fortunes. This leads to the house of the book title and a profession Adelais could never have imagined would be part of her life.
But life on the edge always returns to Smet, lurking to trace counterfeit banknotes with the Tournai Forger. As their lives collide, will Adelais's hopes and dreams be met or will it all tumble around her?
Loved this different novel and could imagine the characters fully formed in my mind. The setting of Belgium was different and its historical context added to the interest greatly.
Thanks so much to Netgalley for offering this book for reading and reviewing. I recommend it thoroughly.

This was a great read. The fast pace meant I got caught up in the story and kept turning the pages to find out what happened. I don't usually read books in the genre but I liked the cover and glad I tried something different.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy.

This was a real delight to read, well written, well paced and with plenty of twists and at no point did I lose track of what was happening.
The story starts in Flanders shortly after the war with an arson attack leaving a young widow, the policeman investigating is sure there is more than just some political opportunism, when forged 500 franc notes start to turn up he is convinced. Here starts a game of cat and mouse covering several years.
We also meet Adelaide, a young girl affected by polio, gifted a hand operated tricycle by her uncle, she finds her freedom, leading her to save a boys life, forming a firm friendship with Sebastian, whose life she saved when he fell off his bike into the canal.
Her uncle leaves her the lease to a building, which is secured with nine locks, the reason for the security is soon clear, inside is a treasure trove.
A great read and I thank NetGalley for the chance to read it.

An excellent story that has surprises throughout, there are two strong female characters and a most unusual crime undertaken in post war Flanders.
Adelais is a young woman, with a disability, somewhat mollycoddled by her parents, and she fights against these restrictions in a defiant manner.
Her beloved Uncle Cornelis dares her to undertake activities that others feel she can not achieve, but she manages to become more independent when she is given an invalid carriage that is controlled by her hands and she sets off to explore her local area with the companionship of Sebastian and Saskia.
Her Uncle leaves her the titular house upon his death, she explores the hidden and forbidden secrets and becomes a brilliant forger. This money will be used as compensation for previous injustices, in a sacrificial, yet totally justifiable way.
When the females turn the house into a Casino, the fun really starts! The Police become interested, and family and staff loyalties are tested in many demanding scenarios.
What an adventure, who says that crime doesn’t pay! I really wanted Adelais to succeed in her endeavours, whether they were criminal or not.
I loved the characters of Adelais and Saskia, disability doesn’t mean stupid, their friendship is supportive and loyal .
I thought that Sebastian had a stronger role at the beginning of this story, but he became more of a bit player towards the end, a fairly weak and beaten person, I felt.
Uncle was an absolute charmer and rogue, with that hint of danger that made him appear very attractive. Only out for himself I’m afraid, that was an interesting twist.
The story keeps the reader guessing. There is manipulation, control and complex themes here. Is crime ever justified?
A five star read. My thanks to Netgalley for my e- ARC freely given in return for my honest review. I will leave copies to Goodreads and Amazon upon publication.

A thoroughly absorbing and different crime story. set in post war Belgium. The story follows the life of Adelais, a young disabled girl who unexpectedly inherits a ramshackle house from her uncle. This leads her to start a criminal life of forgery to try and help her family out of poverty. Meanwhile the police have been trying to find out the identity of the person behind the forgeries for a number of years. As the story unravels I became invested in the characters and the inevitability of the police closing in on Adelais.. I so wanted Adelais to succeed. I encourage everyone to read this book and hope they enjoy it as much as I did especially the conclusion.