Laura Purcell returns to the world of the ghost story The Silent Companions

Raven Books has announced House of Splinters, a new novel by award-winning author Laura Purcell. Publishing director Alison Hennessey bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment, and the book is out on 9 October 2025.

Hennessey said: "I am so excited to be publishing House of Splinters. The Silent Companions is one of the cornerstones of the Raven Books’ list, the book that I press into everyone’s hands at this spooky time of year, and I can’t wait to take readers new and old back to its iconic setting for another truly terrifying tale. Laura really is the Queen of the Gothic."

Purcell said: "My readers have asked me for more silent companions and I’m delighted to give them another spooky trip to The Bridge, exploring the haunted generations between Anne and Elsie Bainbridge. Partly inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas, this new novel explores the dark secrets, dangers and psychological toll of trying to raise a family inside a cursed home."

House of Splinters will take readers back to the early days of The Bridge, the same eerie stately home featured in The Silent Companions, and introduce them to mother Belinda Bainbridge who moves into the house after her father-in-law dies. 'But when her brother-in-law arrives, bringing with him rumours of a curse, Belinda finds herself beset with questions. What happened to her husband’s sister in childhood? What led to her father-in-law’s sudden death? And what part do the strange carved figures around the household have to play in the unsettling events around the house?'

Laura Purcell is an award-winning author, whose ghost story The Silent Companions sold over 75k copies through the TCM, winning the WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award and being selected for both the Radio 2 Book Club and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club. Her ghost stories have been featured in Sunday Times bestsellers, The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits and last month she was announced as the winner of The Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award for her most recent novel The Whispering Muse.