Westbrook sighed. ‘In the face of extreme violence, men either become resolute or they submit. They muster their dread – feed on it – or it breaks them. Moral outrage is quite useless, I’m afraid.’ One of the most evocative thrillers I’ve ever read.… Haunting, cinematic, and utterly gripping." D. B. John Second, Gray recreates a horrifying world, which is brilliantly researched and completely credible. He is a master of detail, of what it was like to row on the Cam in 1916, or lead a trench raid in 1918, or how French civilians lived in their destroyed houses in 1919, and how the battlefields were cleared after the Armistice. Some authors would want to demonstrate their research and knowledge with heavy description. Gray is different. Every detail that he includes serves the narrative.

The author writes beautifully. The narrative flows smoothly. His descriptions of ruined villages, of the shell- ravaged and highly dangerous former trench lines is stark and scary. But most importantly it is his protagonist, Amy, a young. , bereaved woman determined in her quest to find out more about Edward’s fate. Determined , but not fearless- the grounds are full of dead, the fogs swirl with deadly menace. Do you get used to this?’ she said at last. ‘All this death – all this…? Does it become normal for you?’

A young lady of your station doesn't spend her time cutting up bodies, living or dead," her mother once told her, thwarting her plan to study medicine. The novel is a whodunit of sorts. But it is also a thought-provoking drama which routinely strikes a number of serious notes about man's inhumanity and the traumatic effects of conflict. As Edward reminds us, "War poisons everything that it does not destroy." On the battlefields of northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the task of gathering up the dead for mass burial.

Sara Cox says: “I’m absolutely thrilled we are once again delving between the covers, bringing another selection of seven brilliant brand new books, as well as spanning the decades with seven books by talented authors from across the Commonwealth to celebrate the Jubilee. On a personal note, it still brings me endless joy that drinking tea and eating custard creams whilst curled up with a good book is considered 'work'. Bring it on.” Between The Covers (7 x 30’) was commissioned by Emma Cahusac, BBC Arts Commissioning Editor. Created and produced by Cactus TV, Exec Produced by Amanda Ross with Series Producer Pollyanne Conway. Hellfire, this is seriously good! It is well researched, with accurate descriptions , not only of the horrors of trench warfare, but very sympathetic to the family members left in limbo, where are their loved ones? If reported missing, that doesn’t give closure, if dead, where has the body been buried, was there enough body to identify, is there a marked grave or was it left to rot on the battlefield.

The story employs a non-linear plot that alternates sequences in the trenches in 1918 and the bulk of the story, set in 1919. I love non-linear plotlines. I think they are particularly effective for mysteries because it allows the reader to learn the story’s details bit by bit and gradually connect them to the main plot. It was satisfying in this case because the ‘truth’ the main plot uncovered changed many times, and the vision into the past gradually allowed me to make up my own mind about what happened. I loved that this focussed on World War One. There are many, many fictional books about the Second World War which are as sad and as beautiful, and I have read some real belters, and I am in no way shrugging off the important of those books. But I don’t think I have ever read a book set in the first war. It’s almost like there’s this belief that nothing noteworthy happened in that war, which is obviously wrong. The world has been waiting for a worthy successor to Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong - now Philip Gray has delivered it' David Young, author of Stasi Child . 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.

Canon Richard Lamey is the Rector of St Paul’s, Wokingham, and Area Dean of Sonning, in the diocese of Oxford. A] splendidly realised historical thriller….its achievement lies in Gray’s finely worked portraits of the pity of war — those damaged by conflict and those who have to deal with its mind-altering consequences." The Times - James OwenIn 1919, on the desolate battlefields of northern France, thousands of soldiers undertook the immense and dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial. All books for Between The Covers have been carefully chosen to include something for everyone and are guaranteed to spark entertaining conversation. Parts of Two Storm Wood are hard to stomach, but Gray is consciously making a point about conflict, and how the damage done to us and to society brutalises us, making us pass it on, to the harm of others. It is a message that we keep failing to learn, as individuals and as nation states. That reality is not only the legacy of the First World War, but of every conflict before and since. Do conflicts ever actually end? The frail shoots of hope which end the book, the possibility, hint at where new life might begin.