A Cold Wind Down the Grey

He's the police inspector who failed to stop the worst mass murder in the history of New Zealand and he can't forget it. In 1888, forced into retirement by government cuts, Inspector William Henry James walks home beside the Whanganui River remembering his association with a horrendous mass murder: back in 1866 he had forced the Burgess gang to leave Greymouth. The gang took a steamer up to Nelson and within days killed five men on the Maungatapu Track. Soon after, Inspector James discovered the body of a young surveyor, George Dobson, murdered by Burgess and his crew. The gang was gone, but one guilty man remained, and James was determined to bring him to trial. The events that transpired haunted him for the rest of his life. "Wendy Wilson writes beautifully and subtly about bad men who did bad things, as well as those who struggled to bring them to justice. In A Cold Wind Down the Grey, the past, in all its complicated allure and nasty...