Private Royals by James Patterson and Rees Jones

Jack Morgan is in London, enjoying the celebrations for the Queen's 90th birthday when he is called in to help with a kidnapping.  Abbie, the daughter of the Duke of Aldershot may be way down the list of heirs to the throne, but she is still a member of the British royal family.  The Duke has asked Private for help and at his request they keep the kidnapping a secret from the Police, but the kidnapper has unreasonable demands and a very tight timetable to follow.  As Jack Morgan and the team at Private London tackle the case they discover that things are not what they seem and that young Abbie is in serious danger of becoming part of the Trooping the Colour in the worst way possible.

Private Royals is part of the new Bookshots series and I have to say that it lived up to it's promise and then some.  The premise for the series is plot driven stories under 150 pages that you can read on the go and not want to put down - displayed rather admirably in the trailer with a man running down the road and doing stunts without putting down his book.  The plot for Private Royals was fast paced and what you would expect from a full length Private novel, it just happened to be condensed into a gorgeous little novella that I was able to knock off in no time.

Bookshots has a lot of promise both as a vehicle for shorter stories from one of today's leading authors and his coauthors, but also as a way to encourage people to jump into something that has real substance but doesn't take the time commitment of a full novel.  Some people will definitely struggle with the Bookshots concept - one of my coworkers doesn't like the idea because she likes to settle into a book and take her time.  Me, I loved the idea and had an enjoyable afternoon reading a few of the books in one sitting while I waited for my next full length novel to be available at the local library.  A great concept and it looks like there are many more to come!

If you like this book then try:

• Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• Private London by James Patterson and Mark Pearson
• Private games by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan
• Private # 1 suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• Private Berlin by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan
• Private Oz by James Patterson and Michael White
• Private India by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi
• The hostage by James Patterson and Robert Gold
• Zoo 2 by James Patterson and Max DiLallo

Reviewed by Brilla