But pregnant and widowed just weeks after their wedding, with her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her late husband’s awkward cousin for company. When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. Laura Purcell's The Poison Thread is now out from Penguin! I consider it to be the perfect entry point for readers new to the genre and wanting to give it a try.“ extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book.” - Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author The Silent Companions is Laura Purcell’s masterpiece and the original reason I fell in love with Gothic horror. But to understand these mysteries, Elsie must also come to terms with her own haunted past.Īll of this leads up to a perfectly crafted climax, until the final word of The Silent Companions drops like a bomb on everything you thought you knew. The Silent Companions is brilliantly crafted for maximum suspense as Elsie tries to understand what happened to herself and to her deceased husband, and to uncover the source of evil infecting his estate. The Silent Companions continues along the three timelines of Anne and Hetta in the 1600s, Elsie and Sarah at the Bridge in 1865, and Elsie at the asylum. Hetta is strangely drawn to the group of silent companions brought into the house by Anne, and a series of gruesome events soon follows. But something went terribly wrong, and Hetta’s tongue never developed enough to allow her to speak.

After having only sons, Anne wished for a daughter and apparently brought Hetta into the world through herbal witchcraft. The diary tells the story of Anne’s daughter, Hetta. Sarah discovers a diary of her ancestor, Anne Bainbridge, from the early 1600s. The silent companions give Elsie and Sarah the impression of being possessed. A quick Google search of “dummy board” will show you exactly how creepy they look. While staying at the Bridge, Elsie and Sarah discover a set of silent companions, i.e., cutout wooden boards with realistic paintings of people, also known as “dummy boards.” Silent companions were introduced as an artform in England in the 1600s.

She is expecting a baby and travels to her late husband’s family estate, the Bridge, where she stays with her younger brother, Jolyon, and her husband’s reticent cousin, Sarah. Elsie has been left widowed only a short time after her wedding. The Silent Companions then flashes back to 1865, just before Elsie’s imprisonment. Inexplicably, she is also covered with terrible burns. She is suspected of murder and arson and has lost the ability to speak. The novel opens during an undisclosed year as the main character, Elsie Bainbridge, finds herself imprisoned in an asylum.

The Silent Companions is Laura Purcell’s unnerving tale of Gothic horror that gradually reveals itself over multiple timeframes.

The silent companions book