The Keeper — Rosanne Hawke

Twelve-year-old Joel Billings wants a father more than anything. He hasn't had it easy â€" the school bully picks on him and his parents abandoned him long ago. He lives with his over-protective gran, who won't even let him enter a fishing competition. Joel reckons having a dad would solve all his problems, so he advertises for one in the newspaper. When a tattooed, long-haired biker named Dev Eagle answers the ad, Joel's world is turned upside down. But Dev is not the only new stranger in town â€" someone from Joel's past is back to haunt him. This gripping book is the first in a trilogy for middle-reader boys, which continues with Sailmaker and Killer Ute.