House of Splinters

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents House of Splinters by Laura Purcell, read by Juanita McMahon.

'An enormous treat . . . beautifully vivid, claustrophobic and macabre . . . a masterful page-turner' Bridget Collins, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Binding
'Laura Purcell really is a master of the unsettling ghost story' Jen Williams

Not every house is a home...

Belinda Bainbridge has spent her life in the shadow of her anxious mother, so when her father-in-law dies at The Bridge, his remote ancestral seat, she is secretly thrilled. His death means she, her husband Wilfred and their children can relocate and finally begin to create their own happy home together: born a merchant’s daughter, she will now be lady of the manor.

But their new home quickly proves far from ideal. The garden is a wilderness, the estate is struggling financially, there are whispers about the mysterious death of a servant many years before while their young son, Freddy, seems unusually fixated on the strange wooden figures – so-called 'silent companions' – that were once owned by his ancestors.

When Wilfred's charismatic brother, Nathan, arrives unexpectedly from abroad, bringing a very different account of the family’s past, Belinda begins to question what her husband has told her. What really lies behind the sad history of the house?

And are Belinda’s children truly safe here?

The outstanding new haunted house story from Sunday Times bestseller and multi award winner, Laura Purcell, who is credited for reigniting readers' passion for classic gothic tales for a new audience.

Critics Review

A chilling atmospheric read
Woman's Own
There are shivers aplenty in Purcell's return to the setting of ... The Silent Companions [...] Purcell is brilliant at racheting up the tensions as the family try and make a home in the old mansion
Daily Mail
Purcell’s skill in mixing the everyday with the macabre remains impressive
The Times
If you relish an atmospheric ghost story with a twist, this one is for you
Candis
Laura Purcell has done it again, delivering a suspenseful, atmospheric story that progresses with a creeping sense of dread at each turn of the page. Weaving family secrets, resentful villagers, and eerie wooden companions into a tale that creeps under your skin like splinters, this is a Gothic offering that will keep you reading long past midnight … and sleeping with the lights on
Susan Stokes-Chapman, Sunday Times bestselling author of Pandora
Laura's books are always an enormous treat, and this one is no exception. It is so beautifully vivid, claustrophobic and macabre - and it balances the picturesque and the horrifying perfectly (the roses! the splinters! argh!). On one level it's a masterful page-turner, but on another it's a wonderful metaphor for buried secrets and injustice and the damage they wreak when they begin to reveal themselves... A real pleasure
Bridget Collins, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Silence Factory
House of Splinters is everything you would expect from Laura Purcell’s return to the world of The Silent Companions: spine-chilling and malevolent, with the eerie companions making up only a part of a mystery involving family grievances, inheritances and resentful locals. A twisty, sinister read
Rosie Andrews, author of Sunday Times bestseller, The Leviathan
House of Splinters is a spooky delight for both newcomers and fans of Laura Purcell's work alike. Purcell is at the top of her game, weaving a twisted story that kept me guessing - and reading. In The Bridge, the house of horrors that featured in The Silent Companions, does sheltered heroine Belinda have more to fear from the ghosts - or from her family?
Laura Shepperson, author of The Heroines and The Heir of Venus
The Silent Companions is one of my go-to recommendations for anyone looking for Gothic horror, and I still vividly recall reading the final chapters in a holiday cottage in Keswick by lamplight on Halloween, a thoroughly terrifying experience. House of Splinters is such a worthy follow-up: a prequel of sorts, set in the Georgian era, menace stalks through each page, and the companions are possibly even scarier than on their first outing. They’re up there with Weeping Angels for instilling utter terror. Laura is the absolute queen of Gothic horror: get this one preordered so your October self can be filled with delicious fear!
Naomi Kelsey, author of The Burning and The Darkening Globe
Laura Purcell’s follow up to The Silent Companions is everything I wanted it to be. Return to The Bridge, with its eerie wooden Companions and sinister happenings around the old house… It’s exactly the right blend of dusty glamour and mystery, and cosy-shiver scary: a guaranteed and exquisite chill even as the summer heats up! I inhaled this in two days!
Natasha Pulley, author of The Mars House and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
House of Splinters is that most delicious type of horror that makes you want to sleep with the lights on. Laura Purcell ratchets up the tension to an unbearable degree and there is no respite as the twists and turns come thick and fast. Highly recommended for when the nights draw in
Lianne Dillsworth
House of Splinters by Laura Purcell is a triumphant return to the gothic world of The Silent Companions and completely gave me the shivers
Theresa Howes
A return to The Bridge was always going to be enjoyable. House of Splinters did not disappoint. It is a deliciously twisty tale, full of Laura's signature spookiness. The companions themselves remain one of the scariest inventions in recent Gothic horror, and this book adds newly terrifying depth to them.
James Oswald
It's a brilliant read - so atmospheric, creepy and beautifully written. By the end, I was holding my breath - definitely not one to read late at night!
Debbie Howells
Praise for The Silent Companions: [An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book
Jojo Moyes
Praise for The Silent Companions: Terrific. Perfect setting, great build-up, chilling. What more could you want?
Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black
Praise for The Silent Companions: [It] shone, for originality for the sheer quality of the writing, the characters and some masterly chills
Peter James

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