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. But 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...
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[The new doctor took her by surprise]***
(Bloomsbury Publishing, 5 October 2017, 384 pages, ebook, borrowed from my library)
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Oh, boy did this book give me the chills. I can feel my flesh trying to crawl off my bones and scuttle away. The creepy wooden figures in this book reminded me a lot of the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who. Yes, they are that terrifying. The story moves back and forth between Elsie's story as she struggles to adjust to being a widow, settling somewhere new and the baby she will soon have and events far back in the past which will have sinister repercussions in Elsie's life. Elsie's story chilled me. Everything seems to be working against her. What happens to her baby hit my gag button. Things get darker and darker for her. I also loved reading about the terrible events in the past and how the author gradually reveals the impact they will have on the present. The Silent Companions is a corker.