Red Pirogue

An apparently abandoned young girl turns up in the Canadian backcountry, and her arrival sets off a hunt for her missing father, a man accused of murder and hunted by the law. She is Marion Sherwood, eleven years old, and she arrives in a red pirogue, a long canoe. The O'Dell family shelters her and makes their home in the woods a safe place for her. When someone steals the canoe and sets it alight, the family must face a new question: who would do such a thing? Tom O'Dell takes up the puzzle, piecing together events and clues in the manner of a backwoods detective, and his search runs alongside the pursuit of Marion's father.

The story moves through a perilous river journey, lawmen who get things wrong, and friends and dogs who prove fiercely loyal. Its emotional center lies in how the characters, by standing together and protecting Marion, uncover the better sides of their own natures. Throughout, the author shows a deep admiration for the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and that feeling shapes the telling as much as the plot does.