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In Farleigh Field
February 2023: England
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[Subdue] In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen - 3 stars
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Well said. I felt the same way about it. She's an entertaining author, and she seems to be moving from cozy mysteries to more serious topics. I found the book entertaining, and I liked many of the characters, but I just couldn't take the villain seriously at all. I couldn't buy the story.I just read The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, which is also about code breaking and spies. It's excellent. I kept remembering Code Girls, and I had a nagging feeling that I read other books with the topic, but I couldn't remember this book until I read your review.
This one got 3 stars from me too-liked it, did not love it
NancyJ wrote: "Well said. I felt the same way about it. She's an entertaining author, and she seems to be moving from cozy mysteries to more serious topics. I found the book entertaining, and I liked many of the ..."I also couldn't take the villain seriously!! I thought it was extremely obvious that person was the spy from the start, and if the situation itself didn't make it apparent, the (view spoiler).
It's 1941 and several members of the noble Sutton family have been recruited to help the war effort. Lady Pamela Sutton works as a code translator and her childhood best friend Ben, the son of the local vicar, has been recruited by M15. They eventually begin working together when a potential German spy's parachute fails to open and he falls to his death near the Sutton family estate, called Farleigh Place. Intrigue, drama and romance ensue.
That's essentially the entire plot, though In Farleigh Field sure takes a long time to get there. There is a dizzyingly large cast of characters, most of whom felt ripped directly from Downton Abbey, and ultimately I found a lot of them extraneous to the plot (like, why include Livvy at all? Or give POV chapters to servants who don't factor into the action?). Also, although so much time is spent to finding the identity of the Nazi spy the dead parachutist was trying to reach, I had who it was clocked almost immediately. But none of these supposedly brilliant secret service agents thought to check out what seemed like a terribly convenient cover story...
Also, it could be so repetitive. Characters have almost identical exchanges over and over, sometimes only a page or two after the first. I kept wishing for these sections to be cut entirely – I know there's a war on, that Germany might invade any moment, etcetera. This repetition made the book feel bloated and the pacing slow despite an awful lot actually going on.
Finally, I thought it weird the book doesn't even address (view spoiler)[the implications of the relationship between Dido and Jeremy. She's banging this Nazi spy and it never even comes up!! Is it possible she was in on his plans? Shouldn't she be wanted for questioning? Or, even more sinister – based on Jeremy's behavior toward Pamela and Trixie's statements about Jeremy being a sex pest, I was waiting for the possibility that he had raped Dido. But the dialogue makes very clear she "wanted" it, I suppose. It was a just very undeveloped plot twist and didn't sit right with me – it seemed like it was only in there to give Pamela the revelation Jeremy wasn't right for her and that she'd rather be with Ben. Meh. (hide spoiler)]
I thought I was enjoying this book despite all these caveats, but I did put it down for about ten days in the middle without finding the energy to pick it back up again, so maybe I was having less fun than I thought. The historical touchstones were pretty neat, though (and seemed decently researched, from what I could tell). And the overwhelming Britishness of it all was very charming - to my uncultured American sensibilities, at least. So it was entertaining in a popcorn flick sort of way, but I don't think it will leave much of a lasting impression.