This paper investigates the cracking and stress–strain behavior, especially the local strain concentration near the flaw tips, of rock-like material containing two flaws. A series of uniaxial compression tests were carried out on rock-like specimens containing two flaws, with strain gauges mounted near the flaw tips to measure the local strain concentration under the uniaxial compressive loading. Four different types of cracks (wing cracks, anti-wing cracks, coplanar shear cracks and oblique shear cracks) and seven patterns of crack coalescences (T1 and T2;S1 and S2;and TS1, TS2 and TS3)...