A Cross for Two Graves

IDEAL READING AS A FOLLOW-UP TO ANY BOOK ON THE WAR IN RHODESIA

“A penetrating perspective on war’s psychological cost …” “Reveals more truths than would any mere historical record …” “Atmospheric …”

When a new book hints at a cover-up of events surrounding the deaths of soldiers and crew aboard a doomed military helicopter, veterans and others connected to that long-ago day are forced to make difficult choices. For some of them, the decisions they take will be life-changing …

Peter Willis, a businessman tortured by nightmares of a war that ended more than thirty years before, must confront his past and choose between continuing a life in denial or joining a quest into the African bush to find the remains of his brothers-in-arms – a search that he knows will force him to remember precisely that which he wants to forget …

Joe Webber, disabled London derelict forgotten by many whom he fought to defend, must now choose between the alleys and dealers that help him bury all recollection of battle, and revealing what he knows …

Clare Baker, the woman who once loved both men, must face her own demons as her part in the search for war wreckage forces intense self-examination. Should she continue to seek atonement for the hurt she has caused, or turn her back and walk away forever …?

And the Colonel – Alistair Sutherland, former commander of Willis, Webber and the rest – Sutherland must watch over all even as he co-ordinates the quest. He must prevent any man from spiralling into the abyss of self-destruction …

A Cross for Two Graves is Alan Thrush’s gripping fictional account of one quest to find a downed helicopter and the remains of those flying into battle aboard it. Yet in the telling of the tale, he delivers an absorbing and tantalising subtext: the complexities of post-traumatic stress and its impact on the individual. The result is a moving story of the long-lasting effects of modern warfare on soldiers – their eternal burden woven into a tapestry of love and war, lifelong friendships and debts of honour forged in battle.

As the narrative ratchets back and forth in time between the glass-and-steel skylines of present-day cities and the harsh, unforgiving bush of the central African battleground, the unearthing of buried memories begins to claw at mental scar tissue carefully cultivated to mask personal pain, while the search itself threatens to reveal a dangerous truth. For aboard that helicopter on the day of its destruction was a captured guerrilla – a prisoner taken in combat and a man who survived it to become a leading figure on the playing fields of today’s politics. His ties to his former enemy must be protected … at all costs.

“Will resonate with many after recent events in Afghanistan.” – Amazon review

“A compelling thriller with a strong element of PTSD and how destructive it can be. Winner of the Red Ribbon and highly recommended.” – The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

“Penetrating perspectives on war’s psychological cost.” – Amazon review

“A magnetic combination of intrigue, mystery, and dark memory from a hard-fought war.” – book reviewer

‘Atmospheric. I could not put it down.’ James Mitchell – books editor and author of Tartan on the Veld

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Genres: psychological novel; literary fiction; political & military fiction; war; mystery – Africa, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe

Would-be philosopher, avid reader and writer, Alan soldiered for seven years in southern Africa before turning his hand to marketing, specialising in the business-to-business sector. He has consulted to some of the world's leading industrial brands.<br><br>His first novel, <i>Of Land and Spirits</i>, was published in hardcover in 1997 and quickly achieved widespread recognition as the defining work of the Rhodesian Bush War. <i>A Cross for Two Graves</i> introduces different characters to pick up the thread.<br><br>Alan's latest novel, the standalone sequel to <i>A Salient in Flanders</i> set in the era of the Great War, has just been published.