A Dark and Painful Mystery

NEW ZEALAND, 1878: Has the missing man been murdered in the dense bush, or has he simply abandoned his wife and children for another woman?

Sergeant Frank Hardy and his new wife Mette attempt to solve two real mysteries from nineteenth-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?

As one newspaper said at the time about the Peter Kane disappearance:

"...the fate of the poor fellow may be cleared up, and the state of horrible suspense in which his unfortunate wife has been kept in for months brought to an end; and we would ask not only the people of Woodville but of the other districts he may have visited, to take all possible steps to throw light upon what at present appears to be a dark and painful mystery." The Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 81, 20 July 1878

For readers who have not read the series already, this book includes a backstory/history of the two main characters.