There’s a lot to love about this book, but I think the characters will be what will remain with me longer.

Yes, I will admit that it gave a bit at the end, but the story is very strong. And then, I’ve read an ARC. There’s a chance the end will be revised again before publication. Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker, moonlights as a dancehall girl to pay her mother’s debts. One night, Ji Lin’s dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir that leads her on a crooked, dark trail. Rather than tell a story of war with a soldier at its center, Philip Gray has crafted a historical thriller in which a gutsy heroine goes searching for answers on the empty battlefields of the Western Front.... Refreshingly different. quiet girl wanders off into the choir loft of a minor church out of curiosity to see the great organ in the loft. There she meets Edward Halsam, organist , choir leader and teacher. .There is an instant attraction between the two young people that soon grows into love. Edward is anti-war , a pacifist and as, a teacher , exempt from the draft. For Amy, who has already knows of many young women left widows , Edward’s views are also hers. But he is poor, not of good family and “ Unsuitable” for Amy to marry, according to her family.. Then Edward’s exemption is lost. He goes to France .and is soon listed missing in action. It is from here that the novel develops into something unexpected , totally absorbing ,moving and , at times , horrifying.The veterans are all great characters. The author is visibly interested in the damaging power of the experience of war. All his characters are damaged in one way or another. Some of them are clearly irreparably so, but for others, there is hope, and this too – I think – is historically accurate. All are so realistically built that I deeply cared about all of them, even the more ambiguous. Their humanity was what came through, their personal experiences creating compassion that didn’t disappear even in the face of the most gruesome revelations. I can’t say whether Two Storm Wood really existed, but I do know that Chinese labourers were indeed emplyed in the trenches. The plot is intriguing, with well-developed dynamic characters, and the mystery that kept me interested till the end. The world has been waiting for a worthy successor to Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong—now Philip Gray has delivered it." David Young

A love story, trying to survive both family and personal loyalty, while being tested in the heat of battle. My father had two uncles who fought at Ypres, one was discharged with trench foot , one of which had to be amputated and the other returned home very briefly after the war and emigrated to Australia and no one heard from him again. An incredibly atmospheric book that evokes the desolation of the Great War's battlefields whilst telling the story from various perspectives of a atrocity discovered after the armistice by a search party for bodies left . It’s also not just a straight war book. How do I put this without spoiling it….there are some mysteries, some red herrings, some tantalising secrets that will keep you hooked and wanting more. For me, it was a very claustrophobic story, you don’t feel relaxed until you reach the end, you get this constant idea that someone’s watching you, that you’re being suffocated.Two Storm Wood follows the stories of three British people whose lives have been affected by war in very different ways: a young woman who boldly sets out to find out what happened to her fiancé, who went missing in action; a soldier tasked with co-ordinating the retrieval of the dead; and a detective sent to investigate what appears to be a series of murders in the empty, devastated landscape.

Immersive and eerily atmospheric, Gray’s novel delivers vivid historic detail and gripping suspense, aligning more closely with Dan Simmons’s Drood(2009) and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollowthan to most WWI thrillers. This is how you do historical fiction. Take notes, I know I am. Such a well written book, Two Storm Wood immerses us into the world of Amy as she tries to find her fiancé Edward, who is missing from the destruction of WW1 and its wake, and uncovers a whole host of secrets. 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. Creative Writing My writer’s journey and lots of resources to share. My idea bout how to build a story, how to read it, how to savour it, and what to ask off of itThree months after the end of the Great War, a young woman sets out across the wastelands of the Western Front to learn the fate of the man she loved. There have been many , many novels of love and loss in the trenches of the war, usually of the Downtown Abbey gloss. But never have I read , or seen depicted the ghastly story of the efforts to find and identify those hundred of thousands who lay in unmarked graves in France. This is where Amy goes to face the reality of what the war of the trenches meant to men like Edward. Along with the mystery of what happened to Edward, is another mystery, that of someone who is murdering soldiers. This is not a horror story or a mystery novel . It is a love story of Amy and Edward, of love and loss and courage. Philip Gray's writing style and descriptions are powerful, and sometimes graphic, so you can almost feel the goosebumps and sodden discomfort of the cold downpour of rain, or the frightening echoes of those that were lost in the brutal trench warfare (Mary F). One thing that piqued my interest was the fact that Edward became addicted to cocaine and opium during his military life… This and other aspects of the book will prompt many discussion areas for book clubs (Virginia M). Having read many novels based on WWI, I had never read any dealing with the subjects raised in this title. I won't mention those that are spoilers, but I honestly had never thought about who was responsible for retrieving the thousands of soldiers lost in the war (Renee T)... continued

This is a brutally unflinching account of war, from a perspective that I hadn’t considered before. I admire the actions of wanting relatives to have a body to mourn, even if they couldn’t be returned home. Looking at all the hard work and effort that goes into the maintenance of war graves today, makes you feel that they were honoured in death, whilst being treated so harshly in war. Amy was a fantastic character and I loved seeing her come to life throughout the book, I very much doubt I could do half of what she achieved in this one. British author Gray lays bare the horrors of World War I through an Englishwoman’s battlefield search for her fiance. Some warned that the descriptions of battle, while a realistic portrayal of the horrors of war, may be upsetting for those sensitive to violence and gore.It took me a while to realise. Then I saw the shape of one and it hit me: what was under the canvas.' Atmospheric and meticulously researched, Two Storm Wood sheds light on the horrors and the trauma that continued even after the Armistice. It is that most wonderful of creations-a novel that informs while keeping you on the edge of your seat." - Abir Mukherjee