Singularly original, there has never been a story like Red Stick One.
A senior Florida game warden finds a 10 year-old boy rambling in the wilds and they soon bond -- the boy becomes the son the man never had and the man becomes the father the boy never knew. Game warden Tom Jay Harding becomes legal guardian of the boy, Virgil Clearly. Virgil exhibits an early genius for tracking and, at age 11, leads Tom Jay and a sheriff in a grueling search for a missing girl.
Following in his mentor's footsteps, Virgil also becomes a game warden. Shortly into his career Virgil learns that Tom Jay has been murdered in the field. Though the evidence is incomplete and the main suspect presumed dead, Virgil is sure the killer, a local poacher, is alive and has fled the area. Virgil takes off his badge and sets out to track the killer on his own.
Virgil's search takes him across the country where he encounters both the love of his life ... and Tom Jay's killer.