The Tooth

Tim Thomas spends his free time combing the hills above Pounamu, his grandparents' sheep station, for dinosaur fossils. His mother drowned when he was four, and all he keeps of her is a hazy recollection, along with a picture of a big tooth set in rock. Now he must locate that exact spot before a dam floods the river gully and water buries the site.

Tim also has to contend with Sam Mason, a bully at school. When thieves steal his horse, he sets out to recover her and ends up facing a band of horse rustlers. Then the rain arrives, the river begins to climb, and Tim finds himself in serious danger.

Des Hunt writes fast-moving adventures set in New Zealand's wild landscapes. The Tooth is his sixth novel since A Friend in Paradise, a 2003 finalist in the NZ Post Children's Book Awards, and it follows Moa Cave, Frog Whistle Mine (a 2007 finalist), Where Cuckoos Call and Shadows in the Ice. Hunt lives on the Coromandel Peninsula.