As a fan of horror books in the vein of Susan Hill and the like, this book was so well written and such a fast paced read. The story takes place between 1865 and the 1600s, in a remote village far outside of London. The house - The Bridges, is spooky in ways that only Purcell was able to capture using words. She has a wonderful turn of phrase and I was engaged from beginning to end - not a word was wasted. I highly recommend this chilling novel to anyone looking to sit under a warm duvet and escape the world outside for a moment or two.
The character of Mrs. Bainbridge was far too relatable, and I have had a few choice dreams about "the companions" - of whom I would like never to see again!

(review goes live 2/26/2018)
Channeling tones of Daphne Du Maurier, Laura Purcell's Gothic tale of The Silent Companions is a must read for those who enjoy feeling like they are being watched. Prepare for goosebumps as you visit the English estate of the Bainbridge family with Elsie as she prepares for her upcoming lying in as a widow. The house is a decaying estate set amongst the poorest of the villages complete with rising mists and clawing vines. This is where Elsie's new husband has died, and is Elsie's first visit. Mystery surrounds the death of her husband but Elsie is more concerned with the scratching sounds in the night and the mannequins that seem to appear out of nowhere.

The novel does a bit of a time slip from Elsie's late 1800's period to the Charles I 1600's through the diary of Anne Bainbridge once Elsie's companion Sarah Bainbridge begins to read her ancestor's diaries. Elsie and Sarah attempt to thwart the evil nuances that follow them but as it happens the novel begins as Elsie is in an asylum and so we know right away what poor Elsie's fate is. The diary speaks of Sarah's daughter Henrietta Maria and the herbs and tisane that were used to conceive Henrietta Maria - alluding to the evil beginnings of the child who was born with a shriveled tongue.

The back and forth of the narrative of Elsie's past and her current state and then the developing story told through the diaries are well presented and easy to follow. The story carries the atmospheric tones throughout as the reader tries to understand why all the evil events are happening around Elsie. I read the novel quickly and still it stayed with me after the last page perhaps wishing the book could have been a bit longer. I would have really liked to read more from the 1600's plot line and the point of view of Anne Bainbridge and her family. There was a lot of time spent to demonstrate Elsie's time in the mental health unit before we could really understand why she was there in the first place.

After reading The Silent Companions it was hard to decide what to read next -- I didn't really want to close that book and move on. I am intrigued enough to follow the author to see what tale she spins next and happy to learn that she has a Georgian Queens series that I can put on my to be read list.

I only made it through the first few pages of this--it was trying way too hard to be creepy and ended up just being silly.

It’s not a delusion if someone else sees something strange, right? This is what I told myself as I read Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions. This is also what the protagonist, widow Elsie Bainbridge, tells herself when she hears unexplained noises, sees doors lock and unlock, and finds the “silent companion” statues all over the house she inherited from her husband after his sudden death. Even at the end of the book, I had questions about what was real and what wasn’t.

The Silent Companions takes place in three different times at The Bridge, the ancestral home of the Bainbridge family. In 1866, a badly burned woman is treated by a new doctor. This doctor thinks the woman might be innocent of arson and murder, as everyone else thinks. This woman, a year before, is the widowed Mrs. Elsie Bainbridge. She’s pregnant and suddenly in charge of running a country home. And in 1635, Anne Bainbridge grows increasingly worried about her daughter—a child she believes she conceived through magic.

The Bridge is an unsettling place, especially once Elsie orders the garret reopened. She and her companion find a painted statue of a girl that they decide to place in the house’s entrance hall. After that, nothing goes right. More and more of the statues, called the companions, appear all over the house. Elsie would worry more about her sanity if her hired companion, Sarah, didn’t also see and hear the same things she does. Like Anne’s increasing alarm about her uncanny child, everything that happens to Elsie seems believable because they’re not the only one having those thoughts or experiencing the weirdness. At the end of The Silent Companions, we’re asked to weigh in on what really happened to Elsie. Is she insane? Is The Bridge actually haunted?

I was a little disappointed in how the 1635 plot and the 1860s plots were integrated in The Silent Companions. The 1635 plot is used in the 1860s plots, but not as much as I would have liked. The timelines don’t really hang together most of the time. This was really my only problem with the book. I enjoyed the rest of it. It was fascinating to follow two women down the road to what might (or might not) be insanity.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 6 March 2018.

The Silent Companions reads like an old time penny dreadful. Quick paced and full of surprise turns, it is a light enjoyable read.

A crumbling country estate falls into a young widow's hands in 1865 after her husband's unexpected death. Strange things begin to happen to Elsie almost immediately and seem to center around the lifelike cutouts that Elsie found in a locked room. Soon everyone, servants and family alike ,are spooked and it begins to look like Elsie is losing her mind. It all seems to feed back to the original occupants of the manor who first brought the silent companion cutouts into the estate in the 1600's and the hold they had over the youngest occupant. Laura Purcell does a masterful job of balancing the old story with the horrors of the current inhabitants, steadily increasing the tension and sense of foreboding. This deliciously creepy Gothic ghost story will have you jumping at shadows and things that go bump in the night. My thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy.

A very gothic and creepy novel about haunted art? Seriously, what’s not to like. I only wish they would have explained Elsie backstory and little more and the ending seemed a little forced.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric Victorian gothic horror/mystery story. It has a slow pace which builds to a crescendo, and although you may see things coming you are still startled by each event. Purcell has woven a successful and historically accurate story which, through her clear descriptions, partners you with the main character, Elsie Bainbridge, and makes you feel as if you are at the desolate edge of nowhere, alone, and heading for madness? Thanks to Penguin Books for access to an advance copy through NetGalley.