Two Storm Wood

April 12, 2021
Set largely in northern France a few months after the end of WWI, this uneven historical from British author Gray (Zoia's Gold, writing as Philip Sington) follows an affluent English woman on a quest to find her fiancé, who went missing in action and is presumed dead. Amy Vanneck, who made a promise to choirmaster turned reluctant soldier Edward Haslam that she would bring him (or his body) home, travels to the trenches where Haslam was last seen in search of her lover. With British troops scouring the area attempting to identify the thousands of scattered corpses, Amy enters a virtual hell scape of death and destruction, where she discovers that her missing fiancé was somehow connected to the murders of 13 men, all Chinese laborers. Flashbacks to the war heighten the tension, and the mystery of Haslam's whereabouts remains tantalizingly unclear until the very end. But the central character—a sheltered woman who witnesses and experiences numerous atrocities alone—strains the boundaries of believability, as does the unnecessary closing twist. Thriller fans will be disappointed. Agent: Nicola Barr, Bent Agency.