Man Overboard!
The title’s shout goes out early in this World War II adventure, but too late to save the mysterious passenger on an excursion ship routed along the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. The event plunges 16-year-old friends Adam and Scott into events far beyond what they expected on their summer jobs aboard the Rapids Prince.
Scott overhears a conversation that convinces him that German agents threw the man to his death and are plotting bombings in both Canada and the United States. When Adam is kidnapped to ensure Scott’s silence, the boys must escape and convince skeptical adults on board that they are in grave danger. Lindsay, a friend who works at a resort the agents are using, and Colette, a French-Canadian teen drafted to care for Adam in captivity, help the boys, as does a war veteran who believes their story.
Exciting and well-paced, with young people to root for and good background knowledge of time, place, and life at sea, Man Overboard! nevertheless suffers from stock characterizations and villains whose gangster talk and gestures include fingers across the throat.
