The Silent Companions

LAURA PURCELL'S THRILLING NEW NOVEL THE WHISPERING MUSE IS AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOWWinner of the W H Smith Thumping Good Read AwardAs featured on the Radio 2 Book Club'[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book' Jojo Moyes'[It] shone, for originality for the sheer quality of the writing, the characters and some masterly chills' Peter JamesSome 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...

Laura Purcell is an author to watch; an ex-bookseller herself, she will be available for all festivals and bookshop events