Sitting on the dark earth and staring up at him was a skull, the lower jaw below ground so Matt didn't have to cope with the thing grinning up at him. The empty eye sockets were scary enough...Matt Logan isn't looking forward to spending the school holidays with his grandmother and her new husband. He has to fly to Rotorua, where he doesn't know anybody, and he's a bit wary of his new step-grandfather. All Matt knows is that he's Maori and a bus driver. Along with his worries, Matt packs his pride and joy - a homemade metal detector, because, you never know, he might find something interesting. What he finds is Juzza, who lives over the back fence and wants to join a local gang. When the boys unearth a handcuffed skeleton, a chain of events begins to coil around them. Together they are thrown into a deadly search for treasure when the local gang boss decides to exploit their find for himself.

Author Biography

Des Hunt specializes in action-packed adventures set in the natural landscapes of New Zealand. This is his eighth novel, two of which have been finalists in the NZ Post Children's Book Awards. Des lives on the Coromandel Peninsula.