The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

A crumbling country estate falls into a young widow's hands in 1865 after her husband's unexpected death. Strange things begin to happen to Elsie almost immediately and seem to center around the lifelike cutouts that Elsie found in a locked room. Soon everyone, servants and family alike ,are spooked and it begins to look like Elsie is losing her mind. It all seems to feed back to the original occupants of the manor who first brought the silent companion cutouts into the estate in the 1600's and the hold they had over the youngest occupant. Laura Purcell does a masterful job of balancing the old story with the horrors of the current inhabitants, steadily increasing the tension and sense of foreboding. This deliciously creepy Gothic ghost story will have you jumping at shadows and things that go bump in the night.