Season's Savings | ₹5/mo for 3 months

₹199/month after first 3 months. Renews automatically. Terms apply.
House of Splinters cover art

House of Splinters

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

 Preview
Get this deal Free with 30-day trial
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
Prime logo
Only ₹5/month for first 3 months.
Get 1 credit per month to use on any title of your choice.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals.
₹199/month after first 3 months. Cancel anytime. Renews automatically. Offer ends 28 December, 2026.
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

House of Splinters

Written by: Laura Purcell
Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
Free with 30-day trial Free with 30-day trial

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹667.71

Buy Now for ₹667.71

About this listen
 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
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

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
The book is brilliant, the plot keeps you hooked throughout- it never gets slow . The narration by Ms Juanita McMahon is very well done , keeps you engaged throughout. Her voice is perfect for thrillers.

A Chilling Ghost story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.