The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mysteries

After escorting a prisoner down from the front, Sergeant Frank Hardy of the 57th Regiment ("The Diehards") is ordered to return north to Woodall's Redoubt to bring a murder witness back to headquarters. A retired major and his wife, relatives of the new governor, have been shot to death on their farm near the redoubt.

In late 19th-century New Zealand, Sergeant Frank Hardy, ex-British soldier, battles for survival and for his own life as he carves out a new existence for himself and his family in the prehistoric but stunningly beautiful bush. An atmospheric and engaging series.This audiobook includes three captivating historical mysteries from New Zealand. The audiobook includes: Not the Faintest Trace, Recalled to Life, and A Dark and Painful Mystery.

Sergeant Frank Hardy is an ex-soldier from Her Majesty's 57th Regiment who is scraping out a living in a small New Zealand settlement by driving a coach and playing rigged card games. But he's haunted by nightmares of things he's seen and done in wartime. When he's asked to find two missing Scandinavian settlers, he refuses - until he catches a glimpse of the cousin of one of the missing men.

In 19th century New Zealand, the Land Wars have finished, but life is hard. Cashiered from the British Army after years fighting in India and Crimea, Sergeant Frank Hardy awakes in an underground prison with no idea where he is or how he got there. As he searches his memory for clues, his partner and his fiancee search for him. The answer is buried in the past and he will have to to dig it up before he can be free.

The temperance movement has taken hold in New Zealand, and the country is locked in the depths of a depression as a new land war threatens. When Sergeant Hardy and his new wife find themselves in financial straits, Hardy takes on Dead Shot, a thoroughbred stallion from a town near the front. But the horse has been targeted by a brutal Australian gang trying to take over the racing world. Murder soon follows. When Hardy's wife disappears, apparently kidnapped by the gang, Hardy must track down the mysterious leader of the gang and take him out of commission.

Join Sergeant Frank Hardy and Mette Hardy in three more gripping mysteries set in late-19th-century New Zealand: Dead Shot, Lying Under Water, and Come to Grief.

Sergeant Frank Hardy and his new wife Mette attempt to solve two real mysteries from 19th century New Zealand: the whereabouts of Peter Kane who left his home to look for work and did not return and the brutal murder of an accommodation house owner who was splitting palings in the bush. Were they connected? If so, how?

Trapped by floods on their horse farm, Frank and Mette Hardy offer shelter to two other families. But when one of their guests is found with a carving knife from their own kitchen in his neck, they must keep themselves alive until help comes. Who among the small group of people trapped on the farm by floods is the killer? It seems that everyone has a reason to kill the man who died, and when Frank is sickened by poison, he makes a decision that almost kills his pregnant wife.

Sergeant Frank Hardy and his wife Mette travel to the southernmost point of New Zealand to chase gold thieves and to retrieve a manuscript for Mette to translate. But they have chosen to travel on an ill-fated voyage. Twenty miles from Bluff, on the south coast of the South Island of New Zealand, the SS Tararua hits a reef and sinks, with massive loss of life. This real event was the second-worst maritime disaster in New Zealand's history, in a country heavily reliant on shipping at that time. But the couple has more than a shipwreck to deal with.

When Sergeant Frank Hardy's father, James Hardy, arrives from England, he's accompanied by a woman he met on the voyage. In forced quarantine on Somes Island in Wellington Harbor, Frank is visited by a man claiming to be a detective from the Chinatown Squad in San Francisco, who warns Frank that his father is in deep trouble. The woman has enemies, and they are on the way to New Zealand to find her and kill her. If James Hardy gets in their way, he's a dead man.

After Sergeant Frank Hardy watches the invasion of a peaceful Māori village by the Armed Constabulary, with crops destroyed and innocent men imprisoned, he lays down his rifle and swears never to shoot in anger again. Then he learns that a contract killer has come from America to avenge the death of a crooked detective from San Francisco. The killer is targeting the Hardy family. Can Frank save his wife and children without relying on his weapons?