Not the Faintest Trace

"It proved absolutely engrossing and enthralling - and I ended up reading the whole book in one sitting." Val Burr, New Zealand Historian.

NEW ZEALAND, 1877: Fear hangs over 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; thewomen are afraid it's a 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's missing his old life and bored with his new life as a mail coach driver and sometime card shark, 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 has assigned 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 Mysteries series. Based partly on a family story of two young men who crossed a river and disappeared, and partly on a little known but brutal atrocity, this book is a product of the author's imagination.

WHAT READERS SAY

"Once I started to read it, I could not put it down."

"This is a masterpiece for anyone who likes their history woven and properly displayed by a master storyteller. Wendy Wilson beautifully captures the many unique cultures of early and illuminates personalities of the many thousands of people who immigrated to NZ in the 1800's from across Great Britain, the wider UK, Europe, Scandinavia, America and China, etc. She has made the characters come alive by creating and understanding how those cultures interacted with the Maori peoples of NZ and beautifully illustrating the lore, language and family bonds which dominated their way of life."