Set in Canada’s Far North, Royal Ransom follows the conventional wilderness survival/ adventure genre popularized by Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet. But Walters adds novelty by making two of the young characters members of the British monarchy. Princess Victoria and Prince Andrew, clearly modelled on the present-day royal family, have come to the North with their bodyguards to take a canoe trip. One of their Cree guides is the story’s narrator, 13-year-old Jamie Ransom, who ends up the reluctant leader when kidnappers strike and take the adults hostage. Princess Victoria, also 13, has unwittingly endangered the group by telling a “friend” she encountered on the Internet exactly how to find them; the “friend” turns out to be a British terrorist plotting to kidnap the royals and ransom them off to the highest bidder.

Although Walters saddles Vicky and Andrew with stilted speech supposedly representing the “Queen’s English,” he has made Victoria a likable character, plucky and quickwitted, with a good sense of humour – a welcome contrast to her whiny, spoiled brother. Fortunately the contrived quasi-romance between Vicky and Jamie remains a minor plot line. When focused on its main story, Royal Ransom is the kind of suspenseful pageturner Walters writes so well. Although the kidnappers and their motives remain fairly vague, they provide some real heart-pounding moments as they stalk the children. In addition, by incorporating references to terrorists, the Internet, and the status of native Canadian people, Walters keeps his story topical and thought-provoking, adding meat to the bones of his “roughing it in the bush” narrative.