Wendy M Wilson

Trapped by rising flood waters on his farm, and doing his best to care for his growing family, including his pregnant wife, Mette, Frank Hardy gives shelter to two other families. When one member of the sheltering families is found stabbed to death the Hardy's kitchen knife, Hardy must discover the killer before he kills again, and stay awake to do so. A classic Agatha Christie style mystery set in nineteenth century New New Zealand.

HE SURVIVED THE WRECK; WILL HE SURVIVE WHAT COMES NEXT? Low on cash, Sergeant Frank and his wife, each take on a task that sends them to the South Island by steamer. When the ship hits a reef on the wild coast of the southernmost part of New Zealand, Frank must save himself and his family while completing his mission: finding the men who stole six gold ingots from the ship several months earlier. His quest is complicated by not one but two baby girls, and a mysterious man who is convinced Mette has committed a crime. An adventure and a mystery, Come to Grief will intrigue fans who like reading a ripping yarn while learning a bit of history.

In 1866, a brutal gang of ex-convicts from Australia left a trail of death, thievery and larceny across the goldfields of New Zealand. In the goldmining town of Greymouth, Inspector William Henry James, in charge of the police camp, attempted to prevent the gang from taking root in his town. Too late he discovered that a missing surveyor may have been the first victim of the gang. After James forced them to leave town, the Burgess/Kelly gang went on to rob and murder five men transporting gold to Nelson in the colony's most horrendous mass murder. The press was merciless. Why didn't he stop the gang when he had the chance?Years later, forced into retirement after government cuts combined two districts, Inspector James reflects on his biggest case, and how he fought to bring those responsible to justice. His own life has been a mixture of success and tragedy, from his days in the goldfields of Victoria, his time leading the gold escort from Christchurch to the West Coast and his gradual advancement on the force, to the personal tragedies that amplify the awful discovery of the young surveyor's body. But as he faces retirement without his promised pension, he delays thinking about his difficult future and reconsiders the worst crime he encountered in his career, and the failures he has lived with for 22 years.

Greymouth, New Zealand, 1866: The Burgess gang is heading towards town, and a young surveyor from one of the country's leading families has vanished. Inspector James is preparing for trouble.In the gold-mining town of Greymouth, where drunks fall asleep with pipes clenched between teeth and burn down their houses, where the town is constantly inundated with floods, and where fifty-seven hotels have sprung up in a year to accommodate the hordes of miners and gold thieves, Inspector William Henry James is tasked with keeping the town safe with a small force of troopers.In 1888, forced into retirement by government cuts, James walks home beside the Whanganui River remembering his association with a series of murders by the notorious Burgess gang: back in 1866 he had forced the gang to leave Greymouth. The gang took a steamer up to Nelson and within days killed five men on the Maungatapu Track. Soon after, Inspector James discovered the body of a young surveyor, George Dobson, murdered by Burgess and his crew. The gang was gone, but one guilty man remained, and James was determined to bring him to trial. The events that transpired haunted him for the rest of his life."Wendy Wilson writes beautifully and subtly about bad men who did bad things, as well as those who struggled to bring them to justice. In A Cold Wind Down the Grey, the past, in all its complicated allure and nasty intrigue, seems to appear on the page fully-formed, so that we can live inside it for a while -- for good or for naught." Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, author, Hungover: One Man's Quest for the CureWendy Wilson's passion for her subject shines through in this well-researched, immensely readable novel. Linda Burgess, author, Historic Houses: A Visitors Guide to 65 Early New Zealand Homes

THE WAR IS OVER BUT HIS FIGHT IS JUST BEGINNING New Zealand, 1877: Fear haunts a small Scandinavian settlement near Palmerston, in the North Island of New Zealand. The children have spotted a troll lurking in the bush, a large man clutching a hatchet and carrying a bag over his shoulders, the kind of troll that steals small children away from their families; the women are afraid it's a bad man intent on harming them. Meanwhile, two teenaged boys are missing after crossing the river in search of illegal drinks.The inhabitants of the settlement, who have sailed from Schleswig to escape the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, can't get the police to take their fears seriously. When the settlers ask Sergeant Frank Hardy, once a sharpshooter with the 57th. Regiment, to search for the boys, he's not interested. He misses his old life and is bored with his new life as a mail coach driver, but looking for the bodies of two drowned boys is not the excitement he craves. Then he recalls his brother who went missing a decade ago after crossing a different river, and he changes his mind. But as he begins his search, an event from his army days resurfaces, and his danger increases. And now he has a young woman to protect: the attractive cousin of the missing boys, who assigns herself the task of helping him search. Set in the picturesque New Zealand countryside, Not the Faintest Trace, a gripping mystery with a touch of romance, is the first of eight books in The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mystery series. Based partly on a true family story of two young men who crossed a river and disappeared, and partly on a little known but brutal atrocity, this book, as well as the entire series, is a product of the author's imagination.