Laura Purcell is a former bookseller living in Colchester, Essex with her husband and pet guinea pigs. She is the author of six novels, among them Gothic novel The Silent Companions, which was a Radio 2 and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club pick and The Shape of Darkness, winner of the inaugural Fingerprint Award for Historical Crime Book of the Year. Her short story 'The Chillingham Chair' was included in The Haunting Season anthology, which was an instant Sunday Times bestseller. She also wrote 'Roanoake Falls', a dramatic podcast for Realm, working with John Carpenter and Sandy King Carpenter.
