_edited_edited.jpg)
The Times Thriller of the Year
[A] splendidly realised historical thriller... Although the novel is deftly plotted and the atmosphere all distorting fog and claustrophobic dugouts, 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.
James Owen, The Times
In this poignant, intricately plotted novel, Gray succeeds in entwining two powerful tales - a love story and a hate story - in a way that, right from the shocking start, is both convincing and enthralling.
Virginia Baily, Sunday Times bestselling author of Early One Morning
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.
Malcolm Forbes,
StarTribune
Newsday
Two Storm Wood has the literary class, intellectual depth, and thriller pacing of Robert Harris at his best - with an added spine-tingling aura of menace worthy of Stephen King. It's the most chilling portrayal of a historical period since Philip Kerr's novels of Nazi Berlin, yet at its core Gray's masterpiece is a heart-rending story of sacrifice, love and loyalty.
Matt Rees, Crime Writers Association award winning author of the Omar Yussef series
A finely woven murder mystery … Well researched fiction often informs, and a strength of this novel is that it sheds light on a mostly overlooked chapter … The plot twists keep coming, but the picture it paints of physical and emotional desolation will stick with the reader long afterwards.
Becky Clark,
Soldier
Two Storm Wood is book that you struggle to put down and struggle to forget… Gray recreates a horrifying world, which is brilliantly researched and completely credible… Some authors would want to demonstrate their research and knowledge with heavy description. Gray is different. Every detail that he includes serves the narrative…. [He] creates compelling characters in a way that is natural and draws us to them. He describes landscape sparingly, and he does the same with his people: a small detail conveys a great deal of insight.
Richard Lamey,
Church Times
I enjoyed it immensely.
Sir Trevor McDonald
Between the Covers
BBC2
[An] impressive
thriller, full of mystery and
suspense, revealing some
little-known aspects of life in
the trenches.
Philippe Blanchet
Le Figaro
Reviews & Press
One of the most evocative thrillers I've ever read. The writing is superb – shades of Hollinghurst and Pat Barker combine in a taut, finely plotted mystery. Be warned – this dark, intelligent story is very hard to put down. Haunting, cinematic, and utterly gripping.
David John, New York Times bestselling author of Star of the North
A quite terrifying literary thriller. The world has been waiting for a worthy successor to Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong – now Philip Gray has delivered it. This novel really is that good. The desolate, nightmarish atmosphere of the WW1 battlefields and the aftermath of more than four years of slaughter is expertly portrayed in what is both a very moving love story and fascinating mystery. A novel that will stay long in the reader’s memory after the last page is turned.
David Young, Crime Writers Association award winning author of the Stasi Child series
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 Hollow than to most WWI thrillers.
Christine Tran, Booklist (*starred review)
Powerful historical fiction and a testament to war's insanity.
Kirkus Reviews
A beautifully written thriller... The bloodlands are described in uncompromising terms, and the novel ends with a wonderful twist.
James Moran,
The Tablet
Two Storm Wood is an enthralling piece of historical crime fiction, a dark and desolate read, set in the middle of a hellish landscape, which confounds and captures the reader at every turn of the page. I found myself caring for every single character, whether they were playing a bit part or at the very centre of all the intrigue, although Amy, the little mouse who reveals her inner lioness, is the star... This is one of those books that you’re tempted to move through at speed, but instead pull on the reading brakes to relish the prose and make the experience last just that little bit longer.
Entertainment News
… plunges into the darkness of the past with an incredible sense of suspense that literally ends on the last page. It is at the same time a historical novel, a thriller, a tragic love story. Above all, it is a great book with a precise style that knows how to document a scene in great detail while taking the reader on a dramatic ride. Honestly, it's impressive.
Lire magazine
(France)
A finely woven murder mystery … Well researched fiction often informs, and a strength of this novel is that it sheds light on a mostly overlooked chapter … The plot twists keep coming, but the picture it paints of physical and emotional desolation will stick with the reader long afterwards.
Karine Vilder
Le Journal de Montréal
Assured, 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, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Wyndham & Banerjee crime series
A moving love story hidden inside a harrowing and psychologically observant historical thriller... The characters, from laborers to senior officers, are complex, compelling, and relatable... The suspense skyrockets as the various plot threads converge, putting Amy in heart-pounding danger, with a stunning final twist on the very last page.
Jean Gazis,
Mystery Scene
Two Storm Wood is an impressive achievement. It sheds a powerful light on a neglected aspect of World War One history. I can’t recommend it enough.
Alan Parks, author of Bloody January, shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière
Intelligent, chilling murder mystery set among the wastelands of a war-ravaged France. Deftly plotted, and also a brilliant character piece, teeming with ideas about devotion, radicalism, identity, race, and the ethics of battlefields. Mightily rewarding.
Dominic Nolan, bestselling author of Past Life and Vine Street
Couldn't put this down. A thriller and romance set amidst the post-Armistice battlefields and the damaged people trying to do right by the dead. Extraordinary setting, great characters, bursting with ideas.
Dominick Donald, author of Breathe, Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2018
The writing is poetic and literate, a pleasure to read as the author re-creates the haunting ... battlefields of northern France, only just beginning their recovery from the devastation of the conflict.
Douglas Kemp,
Historical Novel Society
I was completely gripped [and] read it into the wee hours. It's such a well written thriller.
Cariad Lloyd,
Between the Covers
BBC 2
[Gray] shows that the Great War can still surprise: his novel highlights lesser known aspects, such as the presence of "coolies" of Chinese origin … and the role played by drugs (opium in particular), which are often overlooked. The author also explores the psychological changes war has on men, including the most pacifist, which allows him on a purely literary level to take the reader from one hypothesis to another, letting them imagine all the possible destinies for the book’s characters.
Yoann Labroux Satabin
Télérama
(France)