Seriously, one of the best mysteries I’ve read recently. 
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. 

My experience as a reader is that historical mysteries are often a mixed bag. Most I’ve read lacked on the ‘historical’ side. Two Storm Wood by Phil Gray isn’t the case. This novel is an incredibly well-research book and more than this. The research was skillfully used to create a setting that is alive and breathing. I often felt I was there, in the abandoned trenches, not just because of the tactile and sensorial impressions but also for the atmosphere. Gray creates a haunting place, and if occasionally he slips into a recognisable horror mode, that doesn’t harm the historical accuracy at all. 
I was also very impressed by the vividity of the military life in the trenches. Military life is always tricky to represent because it is so unique, specific, and even more so when we’re talking about a historical experience. I never had a feeling that the author was gripping in the dark. The description of military life was so detailed that I never felt lost. This was true in both the sequences set during the war and those after it. The abandoned battlefields where teams of voluntaries searched for the fallen to give them a resting place and where families (and tourists) went to find their loved ones or to feel a thrill came alive on the page. 
I loved it.

The mystery was impenetrable. 
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. 
The investigation on the ground was presented in a very realistic way. The characters discovered details and information slowly, mostly talking to each other or working out things they learned. It helped that all the characters were very smart, which is something else I really appreciate. 

And talking about the characters: they are all fantastic!
I cared about all for them, and it was very difficult to work out who was to trust and who was lying. 
They are all carefully built, especially on a psychological level. I loved the discourse about mourning, shell shock, working out psychological damage and physical disfigurement. WWI was a terrible cultural shock for the people who lived through it, and this novel manages to get the feel through beautifully. 
Amy Vanneck, who can be considered the protagonist (but all characters somehow felt protagonists), is an incredible heroine. In historical fiction, I often see women with too much of a modern attitude, who act as if they were living in the XXI century, not their time. Amy is definitely a rebellious woman – in her own way. A new woman, true to the period. She’s not afraid to defy the social rules, especially those that don’t have any sense after the upheaval of war, and still, she never feels out of place. She’s always very aware of the social mores of her time, even when she decides to go against them – or at least to bend them. Honestly, this kind of handling of a historical character makes the message far stronger than just making her a XXI-century woman ‘in disguise’. 
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. 
There’s a lot to love about this book, but I think the characters will be what will remain with me longer. 

The only thing that slightly disappointed me was the ending. I found it a bit rush and left to chance, which contrasts with the bulk of the story. But as I said, I read an ARC, and it’s possible that the end of the story in the published novel will be different. I hope so because it would make this novel even more unforgettable. 

Two Storm Wood

Excerpt

‘Do you get used to this?’ she said at last. ‘All this death – all this…? Does it become normal for you?’

‘Normal?’ Westwood repeated the word as if it were unfamiliar to him. ‘I suppose if it were normal, I wouldn’t have been sent here.’

‘You don’t know why you were sent. Why should Whitehall care about a few dead Chinamen? Isn’t that what you said?’

‘They sent me to gather the facts. My feelings aren’t important, if that’s what you’re getting at.’

Westbrook dragged a chair out from under the table. She heard him pick up the carving knife.

‘Don’t you understand? Amy said. ‘All this tolerance, this keeping up appearances. Like it’s all a game. Where’s the outrage? Can’t you feel it anymore?’

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.’

He was digging at the meat, tracing the lines of sinew with the tip of the knife.

‘And then there are some kind of men for whom violence brings clarity. They embrace the elemental force of it. Rules and other abstractions… Well, I couldn’t expect you to understand.’

‘I don’t. I don’t want to understand.’

‘Why should you?’

Amy turned away again. ‘The things I’ve seen… they’re unforgivable. Who could live with the guilt?’

‘Not all men fear judgment, Miss Vanneck. Not yours or mine, and not God’s, either.’

Amy nodded. That must be true. Their existence must be lonely then.’

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In post is part of the Thursday Quotables meme. If you want to discover more about this meme and maybe take part in it, head over to Bookshelf Fantasies

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