Seven hours. That's all Patterson and Jones ask for here, and honestly, even at that runtime, it feels padded.
Let me cut to the chase: Princess is bottom-shelf Private series. I knocked this out on a round trip to a client site in Houston - four hours there, three back - and by the time I pulled into my driveway, I was already forgetting the plot details. Ranger greeted me at the door with more enthusiasm than I had for the ending.
Jack Morgan Goes to London (And I Wish He'd Stayed Home)
The premise isn't bad on paper. Princess Caroline, third in line to the British throne, calls in Private's founder Jack Morgan to find a missing friend named Sophie Edwards. Classic setup: missing person, royal connections, things aren't what they seem. Fine. I'll bite.
But here's the thing - Patterson's cowritten books live and die by pacing and tension, and this one stumbles on both. The mystery unravels too quickly and too conveniently. Morgan barely has to work for his leads. In a good thriller, you want the protagonist slamming into walls, getting played, having to recalibrate. Here, the powerful people supposedly stopping at nothing to keep Sophie hidden feel about as threatening as a sternly worded memo. I've seen more sophisticated cover-ups at battalion staff meetings.
The London setting should've been an asset. Royal intrigue, British intelligence apparatus, the whole surveillance state angle - there's so much material to work with. Instead it feels like a backdrop painted on cardboard. You get surface-level London, tourist London, not the gritty operational London that would've made this thing sing.
Colin Mace: Fighting Uphill
Colin Mace narrates, and this is where it gets complicated. I've heard Mace do solid work - the guy clearly has talent and range. One listener said he "finds depth and subtlety that even the authors didn't realize were there," and I can see that. He's working hard to give this book more weight than the writing earns.
But the accents. Lord, the accents. When Mace dials into his British characters at a natural register, it works. When he reaches for what I'd call the "extreme" end of the spectrum - and you'll know it when you hear it - it pulls you right out of the scene. There's a fine line between distinctive character voices and caricature, and he crosses it a few times. Not constantly, but enough that I noticed while merging onto I-35 and thought, "That didn't sound like a real person."
The pacing of the narration matches the book's rushed feeling. At seven hours, there's not much room to breathe, and Mace moves through it at a clip that sometimes feels like he's trying to hit a deadline. I was already at 1.25x - my standard - and briefly wondered if I should dial back to 1.0 just to let things land. I didn't. Probably should've.
When the Mission Brief Doesn't Add Up
Look, I read Patterson knowing what I'm getting. Short chapters, quick hits, plot over prose. That's the contract, and I'm okay with it. But even within that contract, there are standards. The earlier Private books had genuine stakes and clever investigative work. This installment feels like it was outlined on a napkin during a transatlantic flight and never got a second pass.
The "powerful people" angle is the biggest letdown. When you invoke the British crown and hint at dark conspiracies, you're writing a check the plot needs to cash. This one bounces. The reveals feel small against the setup. It's like being told you're deploying for a major operation and then spending the whole rotation doing inventory.
I will say this - if you've never read a Private novel and don't have the earlier books for comparison, you might find this perfectly serviceable as a quick thriller. It's competent. It's just not good. And "competent" doesn't cut it when you're asking me to spend a credit.
Who's This Actually For?
Private series completists who need every entry? Sure, knock yourself out. Someone looking for a short, undemanding listen for a boring commute? It'll do the job. But if you want a smart thriller with royal intrigue, there are a dozen better options. Start with Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon books if you want international espionage done right. Dead to Her is another one that leans into the intrigue-among-the-powerful angle — I gave it a middling score too, but at least it commits to its dark corners.
If you're new to Patterson's Private series, don't start here. Go back to the original. This is a side mission, not the main campaign.
Ranger's Head Stayed on His Paws
Worth your time? Here's the debrief: mediocre entry in a series that's had much better outings, carried partly by a narrator who's talented but fighting against thin material and occasionally overdoing the accents. Seven hours you won't get back, and seven hours you won't remember next week. Borrow it from the library if you're curious. Don't spend a credit.
