Chosen for the Zoe Ball Book Club
Inspired by the work of Shirley Jackson and Susan Hill and set in a crumbling country mansion,The Silent Companions is an unsettling gothic ghost story to send a shiver down the spine...
She pulled a page towards her. In the gloom she saw a void of white,waiting for her words. She swallowed the pain in her throat. How could she relive it How could she bring herself to do it to them,all over againShe peered into the blank page,trying to see,somewhere in its vast expanse of nothing,that other woman from long ago.
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...
'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
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLCISBN: 9781408888032Number of pages: 384Weight: 273 gDimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'This is terrific. Perfect setting,great build-up,chilling. What more could you want '- Susan Hill
'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
'A deliciously creepy ghost story'- Sunday Express
'A creepy,unsettling tale that I had to finish reading in broad daylight'- Stylist
'A sinister slice of Victorian gothic... creepy and page-turning'- The Times
'A perfect read for a winter night...Intriguing,nuanced and genuinely eerie'- Guardian
'Really tense and unnerving,it still won't let me go'- Woman & Home
'A true page-turner...neatly crafted and compelling...with a spine-tingling revelation every few pages'- Times Literary Supplement
'Irresistibly creepy,this romps along,Purcell turning her screws with skill. It's what crumpets and dismal afternoons were made for'- Glamour
'A superbly atmospheric,tense novel full of creeping dread. I could only read it during daylight hours!'- Red
'This incredibly creepy ghost story plays out in the very best tradition against a backdrop of a crumbling house...Superb'- Saga
'Things begin to go bump in broad daylight as well as the night. Compulsively creepy'- Sunday Mirror
'You may want to leave the light on once you put down this intensely spooky Gothic chiller...Irresistibly creepy'- The People
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