Author:
Paul W. Feenstra is a historical fiction novelist. Meticulously researched and detailed, his character driven novels create a dramatic window into our chronicled and complex past. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1959, to Dutch immigrants, Paul still commutes to Los Angeles, California, where he worked as a multiple ‘Emmy’ nominated entertainment industry professional.


Believing God speaks to him through the archangel Gabriel, and anointed with powers, Te Ua unites his people through a common cause. He is determined to drive the imperial oppressors from Maori land and return New Zealand to the righteous.

In early 1860’s New Zealand, the beautiful region of Taranaki is engulfed in a brutal land war. Continuing with its unpopular policy, the New Zealand government, bolstered by British soldiers, seeks punitive and severe action against rebel Maori who openly resist the Government’s determined effort to confiscate their lands.  With regular army forces ill equipped to fight in the wilderness, the specialist highly trained ‘Forest Rangers’ are tasked to pursue rebel Maori deep into the rugged bush clad hills.

The Rangers newest recruit, Moana (Ira) Rangitira, a veteran of the Crimean war, shows remarkable and unusual skills, Maori fear and call him, ‘The ghost who walks’. Ira faces challenges that test his will to survive, and can he protect what is closest to his heart, or has everything been destroyed?

‘The Breath of God’ is the first novel in the Moana Rangitira adventure series.

A Soldier's Journey

  The police authority in Owhiro Bay was Sergeant Moana Rangitira, officially a sworn member of the New Zealand Armed Constabulary, a paramilitary unit created to keep the peace after the Maori land wars of the 1860's and to maintain civil law and order. 


  Moana's mother, Ata, born in her ancestral lands of Owhiro Bay was a member of the Ngati Ira Iwi.4 Once upon a time she had a passionate, heated and very short affair with an English whaler. As Ata was born an Ariki Tapairu, the first-born daughter of a chief, she had been promised to another. The love affair ended when members of Ata's extensive wh?nau5 threatened the whaler with some very specific physical body modifications. As her family soon discovered, the threats may have been too late - Ata was already pregnant. In fear for his life and desirous to preserve his valued body parts, the whaler fled, never to be seen in Owhiro Bay again. 


Chapter 73