The ultimate ghost story to curl up with. '[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book' Jojo Moyes 'Terrific. Perfect setting, great build-up, chilling. What more could you want?' Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black Some doors are locked for a reason... Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. For inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a two-hundred-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure - a Silent Companion - that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself... Laura Purcell's spine-chilling new novel, The Shape of Darkness, is coming in January 2021...