On Kapiti Coast: A Kate Hardy Wartime Thriller

When reporter Kate Hardy is sent to investigate unusual events on the beach near a US Marine training camp, she encounters a US Marine Major who is about to change her life. But first, she must help him find the traitors who have murdered a young Irishman and left his body in front of the camp.

New Zealand, June 1943. Kate Hardy, a reporter for the Dominion newspaper and the newest member of the Hardy clan, is sent up to Kapiti Coast to see what's happening at Camp Russell, one of several US Marine training camps in New Zealand during World War II. The Marines are training for an attack on the Central Pacific, but her editor has heard that something unusual is happening down on the beach in front of the camp. Could they have spotted an enemy submarine or even an enemy invasion?

The answer drives her back to her own community, the Scandinavian descendants of the settlers who escaped the Prussian Army almost seventy years earlier. German residents are being interned, making life difficult for Scandinavians, many of whom have German-sounding names and appearances.

To complicate her search, an American Marine major keeps appearing everywhere she goes. He has a past, and so does she. Can they work together to stop an enemy who is hiding somewhere in plain sight? Or will they, too, become enemies?

This three-book series is a spinoff from two other series: The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mysteries and Mr. Hardy Investigates. Readers of those series will recognize place names and elderly characters who were children in the earlier series. However, it is not necessary to read those series before starting this one.