• Age: 10 to 14
• Grade: 5 to 9

He knows in his heart that his father, Lieutenant James Martin, could not have stolen the money stored overnight in the blockhouse of The Isthmus and then brutally murdered his commanding officer, Colonel Forrester. But the jury has been swayed by damning circumstantial evidence. Now it's up to 14-year-old Will to find the real murderer and stop the hangman's noose. Only one slim clue guides him: the colonel's missing pet parrot, whose strange and eerie mutterings may hold the key to James Martin's life.

Set in the Brockville/Westport area of Ontario, against the backdrop of the 1837 Rebellion, The Secret of Devil Lake is a race-against-time that's packed full of action, danger and perfectly timed plot twists.

Born in Priceville, Ontario, in 1925, Robert Sutherland lived briefly in Cape Breton and then Scotland before returning to Canada where he attended Flesherton High School. During World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and served from 1943 to 1946 as an anti-aircraft gunner on a Loch Class frigate (HMCS Loch Morlich). When his ship was in dry dock in London for repairs, he experienced doodlebug bombing. While in the navy he met Charlotte Cameron of Glasgow, and they married in Toronto in 1948. They have three children, seven grandchildren and one great grandson. Robert’s first success with fiction was a full length novel in the Toronto Star Weekly in 1960. He used the proceeds to set up a hobby of selling Scottish regalia and gifts from his home, a hobby he still pursues. On two of his many rejection slips for other novels, the editor had written “Suggest you try writing for teens.” When he returned to writing in the 1980s he decided to follow this advice. He rewrote the story that had been published in the Star, cutting down on the descriptions and making his protagonist a teen who accidentally stumbled into espionage. Mystery at Black Rock Island, published by Scholastic, was an immediate success, and the first of five successful books about teenagers David and Sandy. He has now had fourteen novels published, which have received numerous nominations and prizes. His novels have been translated into French, Norwegian, Swedish, German and Korean. Robert now lives in Westport, Ontario.

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