A gothic romance from the award-winning Sunday Times bestseller

Praise for Laura Purcell PRAISE FOR THE SILENT COMPANIONS Ghost stories are for Christmas. Some recent ones haven't quite got it right but this is terrific. Perfect setting, great build-up, chilling. What more could you want? Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black 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 perfect read for a winter night. Intriguing, nuanced and genuinely eerie Guardian A creepy, unsettling tale that I had to finish reading in broad daylight Stylist, 'Must-Read Books' A sinister slice of Victorian gothic... creepy and page-turning The Times 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

Laura Purcell is a former bookseller living in Colchester, Essex with her husband and pet guinea pigs. She is the author of six novels, among them Gothic novel The Silent Companions, which was a Radio 2 and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club pick and The Shape of Darkness, winner of the inaugural Fingerprint Award for Historical Crime Book of the Year. Her short story The Chillingham Chair was included in The Haunting Season anthology, which was an instant Sunday Times bestseller. She also wrote Roanoake Falls, a dramatic podcast for Realm, working with John Carpenter and Sandy King Carpenter.