The Royce Agency: Book Two

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

A year ago this month I posted a review of a new book on this site and at Amazon.com.  That book, "The Royce Agency" was the initial effort of a thirteen-year-old seventh-grader from Oregon by the name of Sebastian Files.   A year later Mr. Files, who is now a fourteen-year-old eighth-grader, has published a sequel to his first book.

"The Royce Agency:  Book Two" takes place a little more than a year after the first book concludes.  In Book Two, the main characters, Charles and Alice Royce, are now the parents of an infant son named Johnny who is just learning to speak and walk.  During the intervening time between the first and second books, Charles has grown more comfortable in running the international detective agency that had been founded by his family and Charles had only learned about a year or so before.

In Book Two Charles is thrust into the position of having to manage the company on his own while he grapples with solving a case involving kidnapped teenagers.  There is a lot of action in the book as Charles learns more about his new responsibilities at the Royce Agency, and his increased responsibilities at home with a growing family.

My favorite part of Book Two is a scene where Charles learns to drive the Royce Agency's steam locomotive as he takes his family on vacation to the beach.  At one time not many years ago I had a good friend who drove modern trains, and his stories meshed well with Mr. Files' version of a businessman experiencing the thrill of driving a steam engine on a day-long journey.  Obviously quite a bit of research went into that section of the story.

"The Royce Agency:  Book Two" is just over 140 pages of text and eleven chapters.  It is available through Amazon as both an e-book and a paperback.

Nice work, Sebastian.  You make your grandfather proud!