The Silent Companions

Hardcover, Condition: Like New. Signed by the author! This is a satisfyingly creepy yarn about family history and the power of ancestors, especially if there is malevolence involved. But horror is a difficult genre to do well, and this novel is entertaining rather than shattering. It’s historical as well as horrible, toggling between 1865 when the pregnant widow Elsie’s past is coming back to haunt her, and 1635 when the witchy Anne and her beloved and equally witchy mute daughter bring disgrace upon their ambitious husband and father. All of these events occur in a spooky family house called The Bridge, predictably set in the remote English countryside where the nearest neighbours are suspicious villagers. But the most powerful convention of the horror genre in this book is the use of doll-like figures, in this case life-size wooden images, exerting their power with terrible consequences. + With the author’s signature.