The Silent Companions

The Silent Companions is a horror novel by the British writer Laura Purcell, published in 2017. It is set in the nineteenth century and is told through Elsie's account of the events alongside letters and a diary.

Elsie Bainbridge married the wealthy heir Rupert Bainbridge expecting a life of comfort, and was widowed within weeks of the wedding. She is sent to The Bridge, her late husband's crumbling country estate, to see out her pregnancy, and finds the servants resentful and the nearby village openly hostile.

Her only company is her husband's awkward cousin, until she finds a locked door and, behind it, a painted wooden figure carved to look like a person. The figure, a silent companion, carries a striking resemblance to Elsie herself, and the novel uses that room to open up the Bainbridge family's past.

The book moves between Elsie's later account of what happened and the events at The Bridge as they unfold, and it builds its horror out of the house, the family and the uncanny figures rather than out of gore. It is a standalone novel.