Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray

337 Pages

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• The Blurb...

1919. On the desolate battlefields of northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial.

Captain Mackenzie, a survivor of the war, cannot yet bring himself to go home. First he must see that his fallen comrades are recovered and laid to rest. His task is upended when a gruesome discovery is made beneath the ruins of a German strongpoint.

Amy Vanneck's fiancé is one soldier lost amongst many, but she cannot accept that his body may never be found. She heads to France, determined to discover what became of the man she loved.

It soon becomes clear that what Mackenzie has uncovered is a war crime of inhuman savagery. As the dark truth leaches out, both he and Amy are drawn into the hunt for a psychopath, one for whom the atrocity at Two Storm Wood is not an end, but a beginning.

• Our Review...

I chose this book to read after seeing it on Between The Covers on the BBC. It sounded like the cut of my gib, not least because, like most people, I had family that served in the Great War. Most notably at the 1st battle of Ypres, and Cambrai (at which my grandfather was severely injured.) When you have family involved in a setting for a novel it feels more significant and relevant to yourself. I believe the modern phrase is that you "have skin in the game." In addition my favourite autobiography is Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (author of I, Claudius) which deals extensively with the horrors of The Great War.

The most bloody war in history is over and Amy, our protagonist, has gone to the now silent but none-the-less still horrific killing fields of France to find the body of her fiance and bring him home to rest. Amy is riddled with guilt about why Edward (a pacifist) signed up in the first place and that is why she feels compelled to break out of the patriarchal norms of polite society and get so deeply involved in the search. It is only when she enters shattered battlegrounds she realises things are not what they seem and something is wrong, very wrong.

There are two main attributes to this book. The first part is the intriguing mysteries. Who committed the atrocity at Two Storm Wood? (an old dugout in an abandoned trench.) What happened to Amy's fiance Edward? Will she be able to find his body and return it to England so that he may rest in peace?

The second attribute is the other star of the narrative, which is of course the setting. Both are really well done. A twisty plot with characters you want to find out more about. A growing sense of impending doom slowly develops throughout the book. It all adds to an engaging novel.

For me the highlight was the prose that captured the both the physical environment of a post apocalyptic landscape and the prevailing socio-political situations of the era and how they impact on peoples lives (see selected quotes)

Absolute belter of a book. Good to read around around Armistice Day, perhaps in conjunction with our other picks (see below.)

• Selected Quotes...

"They looked Amy up and down as she passed, as if trying to assess her value or her price". 

"Never had the privilege of commanding Captain Haslam– though I understand he was an outstanding officer.’ An outstanding officer. The phrase was a standard ingredient of military condolence. Dead officers were all outstanding. Mediocrity was the preserve of survivors."

"He read out loud: ‘Some have power by right of birth, which is no right, but deference and cowardice make it so. Others buy their way to power...... ‘Few are those whose spirit has been forged by war: chieftains, who gather men to their banners as naturally as the swarm to the hive. In time of war they are feared more than the enemy by those who rule us.’

‘Still, the prospect of life among civilians is almost as daunting. Once war has opened a man’s eyes, he can never close them again, no matter how hard he tries.’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves

All Quiet On The Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque ( Click Here for our review.)

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

• About The Author...

Philip studied modern history at Cambridge University, and went on to work as a journalist in Madrid, Rome and Lisbon. He has tutored in crime writing at City University in London and serves as a director at an award-winning documentary film company, specialising in science and history. He lives in London.

Gray, under the pseudonym of Patrick Lynch, is the coauthor of six thrillers that have sold over a million copies worldwide. He published, as Philip Sington, Zoia's Gold, The Einstein Girl, and The Valley of Unknowing.

Philip's grandfather was a captain in the Lancashire Fusiliers and fought through the First World War. Years after his death, Philip came across a trench maps and military documents that his grandfather had kept, and in which he had recorded the events that befell his unit. Based on this information, Philip was inspired to write his thriller Two Storm Wood.

(from bookbrowse.com)