House of Splinters
“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, Sunday Times bestselling author
A London Sunday Times Pick of the Best Historical Fiction Books of 2025
A Book Riot Pick of New Horror Books Scaring Up Your Shelves This February 2026
A Rome News-Tribune Pick of a Dozen New Books Where Nothing Stays Buried for Long
A Rome News-Tribune Pick of New Novels to Launch Your Summer Reading
Named a Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year by The Sunday Times (UK)
House of Splinters is the long-awaited prequel to bestselling and multi-award-winning author Laura Purcell's gothic horror classic, The Silent Companions.
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?
Praise