Alex O’Grady, an angry 14-year-old loner, can’t forget the crime committed by his dead father, though he refuses to talk to anyone about it. It haunts him even at family camp on Loon Island, where he discovers a silver medallion that looks a lot like the one his dad owned. Alex tries to make sense of the discovery, reluctantly allowing Jerry, a nosy fellow camper, to help out.

Prowling around Loon Island gets Alex and Jerry abducted by an intruder, and so they must escape and navigate the vast Lake of the Woods to survive. Even worse, Alex must finally find the courage to reveal his family’s shameful secret to Jerry and risk losing his only friend.

Donna Firby Gamache’s novel is a suspense-filled mystery aimed at teens and reluctant readers. The plot follows the dictates of the genre, with the boys outwitting the police and battling shady criminals, but Loon Island does not strain believability. There are no immensely complex calculations to be made or demonstrations of superhuman survival skills. In fact, the boys don’t always make the most effective heroes, at one point dozing off while staging an amateur stakeout. Adding to the sense of plausibility is the effective interweaving of real places and towns into the setting of the story.

Unfortunately, the twist at the end is anticlimactic – an attentive reader will have solved the central mystery well in advance. Still, the novel is an entertaining read filled with scenes of hiking, fishing, and canoeing. And there is the added bonus of its multi-dimensional characters, from the defensively dishonest teen hero to the conscientious abductor, who treats his hostages to chocolate.