Dangerous Waters

Gregory Mone puts a twelve-year-old Irish stowaway at the center of a genuine thriller set on the Titanic, threading a rare-book heist and a menacing villain through the ship's final hours. Real historical figures — including book collector Harry Widener, who did die on the Titanic — are woven into invented plot, and Mone's author's note distinguishes fact from fiction clearly. School Library Journal praised the ocean passages as 'vivid, even lyrical,' and Kirkus noted the quick-paced action. The villain is somewhat stock, and the Titanic setting is inherently grim — younger or more sensitive readers in the 8-12 range may find the disaster sequence upsetting, which is worth knowing before handing it over. Otherwise this is a well-researched, fast-moving historical adventure that earns its historical grounding.