The Weirdo

Seventeen-year-old Chip Clewt keeps to himself in a murky swamp in North Carolina's Powhatan National Wildlife Refuge, where he tracks and protects black bears. Badly scarred in a fire, he avoids most people, and locals call him the Weirdo. His only steady company is the bears and his boss, Tom. When Tom vanishes and bodies turn up in the swamp, Chip and his new friend Samantha Sanders set out to learn what happened, suspecting the poachers who want the bears for themselves. Theodore Taylor combines a murder mystery, a growing friendship between two teenagers and a story about the clash between people's interests and wildlife protection. The novel won the Edgar Award for best young adult mystery.