British novelist Laura Purcell (Mistress of the Court) offers a classic tale of gothic horror in this claustrophobic journey through one woman's nightmare. The daughter of a match factory owner in 1865 England, Elsie never expected to marry as well as Rupert Bainbridge, heir to a country estate called the Bridge. Weeks after the wedding, Rupert dies mysteriously while readying the Bridge for Elsie and the heir she already carries. Amid rumors that she had something to do with his death, Elsie finds herself bundled off to the estate by her younger brother Jolyon to weather pregnancy and the growing scandal.
The villagers treat her with suspicion and hostility, and the servants look down on her despite their own rough manners. Left with only Rupert's silly spinster cousin, Sarah, for companionship, Elsie explores her new home, where a locked garret holds a life-sized wooden cutout of a girl painted in trompe l'oeil style and two diaries written by a Bainbridge ancestor. Once the ladies move the painting--their "silent companion"--into the house, strange occurrences begin, including the mysterious appearance of more companions, culminating in suspicious deaths.
Despite clear links between the strange events and the estate's bloody past, Elsie faces suspicion that she committed the crimes, and her desperation to protect those in her care from harm is both futile and heartbreaking. The silent companions themselves are hair-raising, moving independently when unobserved. Reminiscent of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black and even du Maurier's Rebecca, The Silent Companions will chill readers who fall under its spell. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Read