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House of Splinters

As the nights draw in, curl up with a perfect ghost story

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House of Splinters

By: Laura Purcell
Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
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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. ©2025 Laura Purcell (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Gothic Horror Haunted Scary Marriage
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Critic reviews

A chilling atmospheric read
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
Purcell’s skill in mixing the everyday with the macabre remains impressive
Laura Purcell’s award-winning calibre is in evidence here, with everything a reader could desire of the Gothic form
If you relish an atmospheric ghost story with a twist, this one is for you
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)
All stars
Most relevant
Really enjoyed this book, great story. Creepy, lingering and gripping. Highly recommended and the narration is great too.

Brilliant follow up to the Silent Companions

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I loved reading silent companions so I had to read house of splinters. Thoroughly enjoyable, builds up nicely. can be read out of sequence without losing too much context. I highly recommend reading silent companions too if you enjoy this. hoping for more from laura purcell, I love the small historical details,making you feel like you're part of that time period too, I do hope she has another book coming out soon!

a fantastic yarn, well read and suitably creepy

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I loved The Silent Companions and found every moment of House of Splinters just as eerie and compelling. Laura Purcell has brought one of my favourite literary genres back to life.

Gothic Genius

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Really enjoyed this, it was creepy and haunting and neither of these things are normally something I would look for, but it just worked in this book. I kept finding myself thinking how great it would be as a tv adaptation. There was definitely a twist in here, it kept you guessing. The narration did a great job - rarely do children’s voices sound so bearable!

Thrilling story

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Great read, very much a page turner. Fantastic twists and turns. Very well written and performed.

fantastic read

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