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18 October 2019

The Silent Companions

Photo of the book cover of The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Horror

By Laura Purcell

Paperback 384 pages
Publisher Raven Books (5th April 2018)

'Layering on the dark and creepy, this intriguingly plotted novel is the full-blown Gothic, maintaining throughout an unsettling claustrophobic atmosphere mixed with some unusual historical detail.' Daily Mail




📕My Review


This book was an excellent Gothic horror story. I'd had it sitting on my Kindle for a while so, with Halloween fast approaching, I thought it an appropriate read for the time of year. The wooden silent companions brought to mind Dr Who's terrifying Weeping Angels and are definitely up there with the scariest evil spirits of all time.

Told through two different timelines, the story was both creepy and suspenseful as I became fully invested in the characters. Spooky night-time noises and candlelight investigations made this book a fantastic read. With its beautiful cover art, this really is a book worth investing in.                   

Book Source: Purchased copy
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📗The Blurb


Some doors are locked for a reason...

Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge.

With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. For inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a two-hundred-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure – a Silent Companion – that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself...

📘The Author


Photo of author Laura Purcell
Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs.

Her first novel for Raven Books The Silent Companions won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. The Corset was published in September 2018, and will be followed by Bone China and The Shape of Darkness in later years.

Laura’s historical fiction novels about the Hanoverian monarchs, Queen of Bedlam (2014) and Mistress of  the Court (2015), were published by Myrmidon and are available from all book retailers.

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