"A missing girl, a hungry gator, only one way out..."-- Cover.

With the help of an eccentric ex-governor, a teenaged boy searches for his missing cousin in the Florida wilds.

To avoid being shipped off to boarding school, Malley takes off with some guy she met online. Richard knows his cousin' in trouble before she does. Wild Skink-- the ragged, one-eyed ex-governor of Florida-- is enough of a renegade to think he can track Malley down. With Richard riding shotgun, the unlikely pair scour the state, undaunted by blinding storms, crazed pigs, flying bullets, and giant gators.