Tracker's Canyon — Pam Withers

Nominated for the 2019 Red Maple Fiction Award


When Tristan's dad disappears, he puts his tracking skills to the test to find him -- but will Tristan's talents save him if it turns out to be a trap?


Thanks to his dad's coaching, sixteen-year-old Tristan is one of the best climbers and trackers in his small town. He can read footprints and bushes like they're security-camera footage, and fearlessly descend rock faces and waterfalls. But when his father disappears, leaving his mother too grief-stricken to function, the young canyoneer's life goes into freefall.


Left in the hands of a well-meaning but incompetent uncle and a space-cadet housekeeper, Tristan finds life a struggle no matter how hard he works. When he nears the end of his rope at home, the teen decides to set off into Swallow Canyon in search of his father -- only to realize that someone may be out to get him. Now the question is who's stalking whom, and are Tristan's skills up to the dangerous game playing out in the deep, shadowy canyon?