A series of detective stories set in New Zealand in the 1870ties after the land wars by Wendy M. Wilson

A few years after the Maori- settlers land wars a former sergeant is asked to find two boys lost in the woods of New Zealand. The background of Maori discrimination,  Scandi and Chinese immigrant labourers, wild nature and the past of Frank Hardy form a very interesting book.

 

Goodreads blurb:  THE TARANAKI WARS, NEW ZEALAND, 1869: AN ATROCITY
After arriving too late to stop the beheading of a rebel Maori chief by colonial troops looking for a bounty, and witnessing other events that sicken him, Sergeant Frank Hardy leaves the military to look for a place where he can carve out a life for himself.

MANAWATU, NEW ZEALAND, 1877: SERGEANT HARDY INVESTIGATES
Eight years after the war has ended, Hardy works as a mail coach driver and part-time private investigator, but can’t forget the horrors he witnessed during the Land Wars. When he is attacked by a vengeful Maori warrior while searching for the bodies of two missing Scandinavian men, he begins to wonder if his past has caught up with him. And to complicate things, a Scandinavian road worker is out to get him and the Armed Constabulary are looking at him suspiciously.

Will his growing love for a young Danish woman bring him peace, or will he suffer the same fate as other men from his regiment, the 57th Regiment of Foot, known as the Die Hards? And will he ever return the bodies of the missing Scandi men to their grieving families?

The first two books of this series are very good but not all 7.