Tyler's family moved to Florida to escape their past, but the past catches up with them in an unpredictable way when someone who appears to be a naturalist engages 13-year-old Tyler to draw certain plume birds for him and then is murdered. Tyler becomes involved in protecting what would now be called part of the Everglades ecosystem. The setting is Lostman's River in the Ten Thousand Islands region of Florida, the year is 1906, and the action is plentiful in this fast-paced first-person novel with a surprisingly contemporary theme. The author used the resources of the Seminole Museum in writing her book. (Ages 10-13)