The Room Within the Wall — L.J. Hutton

From the writer of The Rune House: A dig at an old house to try and date it seems routine enough for Pip, her friend Nick, and the other student archaeologists when they are sent to Cold Hunger Farm, out in the west of Worcestershire. Yet from the start something isn't right. First a Roman find hints at a very murky cult, but worse , brings up events from Pip's past she thought she'd got over. Where did Natalie Walker, the other woman in Pip's ex-fiancé's life, get to when she disappeared from a nearby dig four years ago? Yet the house hasn't given up all its surprises until the team discover a hidden room within the apparent walls of the upstairs, and in it is a body. And suddenly the police are involved and questioning Pip again, because the old investigation suddenly becomes relevant again. Is Natalie dead? And if not, where is she? Pip, left in limbo as the dig is suspended, begins to follow a paper trail which leads her to the family who lived in the house in the 19th century. Is it coincidence that a Natalie Walker appears in their lives too? What designs does she have on the Vaughan family â€" in particular Gus, who, as Pip reads, will make his money in India? In the 19th century another person is drawn into the same tangled web as the Vaughans. Harry Green envies his feckless friend, Edward Clifford, for marrying Amy Vaughan. For Harry, Amy is the girl he always wanted, and as time goes by and Edward cares less and less for Amy, Harry finds himself picking up the pieces. But when he returns to England when the Napoleonic Wars are over, Harry â€" now a captain â€" has more than Amy and her family's troubles to contend with. There's his brother too. Trying to patch up their relationship, Harry also does his best to save the Vaughans from a pauper's fate, but the spectre of Amy's troublesome friend, Natalie, dogs them all. And when Harry is accused of murder it's Amy of all people making the accusation, and all Harry has to lean on is his unworldly clergyman brother, Robert. Or does he? Who is the strange woman he sees in the mirror at Cold Hunger Farm where he's staying? How does she know so much about his fate? As Harry and Pip meet across the centuries, time is the one thing they're running out of. Can Pip's information from the future save Harry's life? And will Natalie finally get her comeuppance? A trial is looming and everything hangs in the balance!