The lost soldier

the long version

Eight ash trees were planted in the Dorset village of Charlton Ambrose, as a timeless memorial to the men killed in the Great War. One dark and chilly night in 1921, a ninth tree appears. Who planted it and why? And who was 'the unknown soldier' for whom it is marked? Eighty years later, the memorial is under threat from developers. Local reporter, Rachel Elliott, is determined not only to save it, but to solve the mystery of the ninth tree. She has no idea that the trail will take her back into the dark heart of her own gripping family history; to a great, but tragic, love and the sacrifice to which it led, in the war to end all wars. This book was previously published as The Ashgrove.