A few years back, Hiaasen successfully dove into the field of young adult literature with wonderful books like Hoot, which was made into a moderately successful film, and Flush. This is another environmentally-themed novel for middle school kids. This time, the focus on endangered species, the Florida panther in particular.

Nick Waters is our protagonist. His biology class at school goes on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp, and things go terribly wrong. A wild fire starts, causing the whole group to evacuate only to have their unique teacher rush right back into danger to recover one of the student's medicine. No one sees her after that.

Suspicion quickly falls on Smoke, one of Nick's classmates, but it soon becomes clear that there is more to her disappearance. A local oil company is hoping to take advantage of the state-protected property to make it rich, and the executives don't care who they hurt.


Nick is also confronted with the unscheduled return of his father from Iraq with a severe injury that has led to the amputation of his right arm.

As with most of Hiaasen's works, there is no shortage of odd characters, but it really adds to the fun to the story. There is quite a bit of humor and a lot of action, which really makes it easy to accept the ecological message. It is definitely a happy-go-lucky tail that is a little predictable, but we all need that from time to time.