The Diehard + The Settlers

A Prequel Anthology

De: Wendy M. Wilson

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

This anthology contains two prequels to The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mysteries: The Diehards and The Settlers.

The Diehard

New Zealand, November 1868: Sergeant Frank Hardy has been sent into hostile territory to bring back a witness to the murder of a prominent man, but the killer is still out there and the rebels are closing in.

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.

Five hundred Māori rebels have been spotted within a day's march of town. A line of fortified hilltops, or redoubts, stands between the town and the rebels, but Woodhall's Redoubt has been all but abandoned, the cavalry having ridden to Poverty Bay to attend to the aftermath of a horrendous massacre of women and children. A small contingent of raw recruits and volunteers remains in place to slow the advance of the rebel force and to shelter the locals.

The captain in charge has sent a volunteer into town to bring back an armed escort for the witness. In response, headquarters sends a single man: Sergeant Frank Hardy. By the time Hardy arrives the situation is so perilous the captain has decided to send two of the older settlers with Hardy.

Hardy reluctantly agrees to escort the small group, but less than an hour into the trip, another murder occurs. Now he has a witness and civilians to protect from a murderer. And all the while, the drumbeats of war are growing louder.

The Settlers

A perilous voyage by sea, the difficulties of life in a new country, new friends, and one terrible event, challenge Mette Jensen as she leaves her home in Haderslev, Schleswig, determined to start a new life beyond the reach of Prussian Soldiers.

With Denmark still reeling from the effects of war over the ownership of Schleswig, two Danish sisters make the difficult decision to leave their homeland. The men of Schleswig, on the border between Denmark and Germany, have already left in droves to avoid being drafted into the Prussian army, and a recruiter from New Zealand has been traveling throughout the country searching for strong immigrants skilled with axes to build the new country.

Mette and Maren Jensen are especially drawn to the place where Ditlev Monrad, the Danish Prime Minister, settled a decade earlier following the Second Schleswig War. And they plan to start their new lives in the town he founded, a new settlement in the North Island of New Zealand named Palmerston.

By chance, another man has settled in that town: an ex-soldier named Sergeant Frank Hardy who has left the army, disgusted by what he has seen.

This prequel covers the months before Mette Jensen meets the man who will change her life. A war-torn country with few marriageable men, a harrowing trip by sea to the far side of the world, and a long walk across swampy, mosquito-infested land with a group of fellow settlers will come before the paths of Mette Jensen and Sergeant Frank Hardy cross.