The Devil You Know by Wayne Johnson

 

David Geist, fifteen, lives with his mother and little sister, Janie.  David is finding his way after his parents split up.  His father had been abusive those last months at home and David isn't sure why.  The abuse seemed to have little to do with him, coming out of nowhere late at night.  But he knows that its up to him now to protect his mother and sister.

Then his mother and father start talking about getting back together.  To try to win the children back, Max, the dad, proposes a canoeing/camping trip on one of the big lakes around.  David is leery but agrees to go. It's clear as they leave that his dad doesn't know much about canoeing or camping and has gotten a lot of the wrong equipment.  David is able to talk him into letting him go to the outdoors store and get them things that will work better but it sets a strain as his father has to acknowledge that David knows more about camping and he is the type of man who doesn't like anyone to know more than he does.

Right before they set out, Max has a confrontation with four men who are also there to camp.  The men are drinking and most people would give them a wide berth but Max gets into it with them.  David, Janie and Max leave but his father decides they will go a different way than the plan they filed with the rangers in case the men try to follow.  It turns out that the men are not just there to camp; they are there to commit a crime to hide their other crimes at work.  They decide that the Geists need to be taught a lesson and take off after them.

The men know more about camping and there are more of them.  They burst into the Geists campsite at night and at the end, Max is injured, Janie is hurt and one of the men is dead.  It is now up to David to get them home and find a way to avoid the men who are now even more determined to find them and kill them.  Can he do it?

Wayne Johnson has written a survival novel that also explores the father/son relationship and the way that men are always jockeying for position and the upper hand.  David starts the trip as a boy who isn't sure of himself and who loves his sister and ends a more confident man who knows now what he is made of.  The action is compelling and frightening at times, violent as men can be in a fight.  The reader will admire David and hope that he can make it through.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.