Review: The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

Elsie Bainbridge may be newly married, yet she’s to be in mourning for a year. Following the sudden death of her husband Rupert, Elsie and her late husband’s cousin, Sarah, are on their way to The Bride, the family home that Rupert was in the process of restoring when death felled him. However, what the ladies discover is an estate in dire need of attention, run down and ill-suited for their stay. The staff are few and hardly trained, and Elsie feels both anger and hopelessness as she realizes that staying at The Bridge is to be her fate.

Among the ruins of a formerly splendid estate, Elsie and Sarah discover links to the past. A diary of one of Sarah’s ancestors, forgotten and dusty, sets the scene for the misery that befell The Bridge two hundred years ago, leading to its current ruin.

The diary recounts deception, magic and shame, and despite the two centuries that have passed between the buildings occupation, Elsie and Sarah can’t help but notice that history seems to be repeating itself, and The Bridge is host to a series of misfortunes not unlike those experienced before. When deaths start occurring, Elsie and Sarah can no longer blame superstition or bad luck, but turn to the strange relics of Sarah’s ancestors; the silent companions.

The Silent Companions is such a marvelously penned gothic tale. Set in the 1860s, yet with a second narrative in the 1600s, it spans a time of superstition, mistrust, and witch hunters. As reluctant fear dawns in Elsie, so does the possibility of horrors from beyond the world of man – of ghosts, haunting and magic. Laura Purcell presents the reader with a subtle chain of events evolving from disbelief to sheer horror, and it is a delightful (albeit shadowy) trip. If romantic yet dark ghost stories or tales of witchcraft and woe are your poison of choice, this is an ideal read for you. If not, you should still give it a chance, if for nothing else but the poetic prose and delicately mounting scares.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell is published by Raven Books, and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.