Behind the Wire
(2027)(The second book in the Kate and Harry Wilhelm Thriller series)
A novel by Wendy M Wilson
Three camps, three barbed wire fences, one gripping thriller set in the South Pacific in World War II.
December 1943, Central Pacific. Human remains and a British Commonwealth dog tag come to light on Betio Island as the Seabees build a landing strip on the site of an old lunatic asylum. The artifacts arouse the suspicion of a Seabee carpenter, who hands the dog tag and his field notebook to his chaplain to pass on to the authorities.
October 1944, New Zealand. On his way home from a meeting in Wellington, Harry Wilhelm spots someone climbing over the barbed wire fence of the Japanese POW camp and gives chase. Unable to catch the escapee, he reports his sighting to the nearest Police Station. He heads home, only to discover that rumors have preceded him, and his new hometown of Pahiatua is on the alert for a band of Japanese prisoners they believe are heading towards town.
November 1944, Pahiatua. Eight hundred orphaned Polish children arrive from Persia to take up residence next to Harry and Kate’s farm in a camp recently used for German and Japanese internees. Kate Wilhelm and other townswomen are there to greet the traumatized children and are horrified when they react with fear to the barbed wire fence and the lookout towers that the town has not had time to down.
As Kate and Harry search for traces of the missing escapee, the three camps come together in one story.
Genre: Historical
December 1943, Central Pacific. Human remains and a British Commonwealth dog tag come to light on Betio Island as the Seabees build a landing strip on the site of an old lunatic asylum. The artifacts arouse the suspicion of a Seabee carpenter, who hands the dog tag and his field notebook to his chaplain to pass on to the authorities.
October 1944, New Zealand. On his way home from a meeting in Wellington, Harry Wilhelm spots someone climbing over the barbed wire fence of the Japanese POW camp and gives chase. Unable to catch the escapee, he reports his sighting to the nearest Police Station. He heads home, only to discover that rumors have preceded him, and his new hometown of Pahiatua is on the alert for a band of Japanese prisoners they believe are heading towards town.
November 1944, Pahiatua. Eight hundred orphaned Polish children arrive from Persia to take up residence next to Harry and Kate’s farm in a camp recently used for German and Japanese internees. Kate Wilhelm and other townswomen are there to greet the traumatized children and are horrified when they react with fear to the barbed wire fence and the lookout towers that the town has not had time to down.
As Kate and Harry search for traces of the missing escapee, the three camps come together in one story.
Genre: Historical