Shadowed Forest

Name: Shadowed Forest
Rating: 4.6 (386 reviews)

by W. Michael Gear Book 2 in the The Peacemaker’s Tale series.

First published 2024

Amazon

4.5(386)

Winter closes over the forests as Koracoo and Gonda continue searching for Odion and Tutelo. Gannajero moves her captives towards buyers, using fear and separation to prevent the children from organising against her.

Inside the camp, the captives realise that rescue may come too late and begin planning their own escape. The novel follows parallel struggles by parents and children, showing how captive-taking supports wider cycles of warfare and how solidarity can emerge among young people taken from rival villages.

Captivity is presented as part of a larger border economy rather than an isolated crime. Prisoners can be adopted, exchanged or sold, and their fate depends on warfare between communities that themselves suffer losses. By giving the children agency in their escape, the novel complicates the simple division between rescuers and victims and shows how survival may require cooperation across identities formed by conflict.