Book Reflection Week One Chapter 1-5

Chapter 1:

    The book "In Farleigh Feild" By Rhys Bowen starts off in Bletchley Park where Pamela Sutton a.k.a Lady Pamma and Trixie Radcliffe are talking about their jobs in their small cubical. They are looking for a job to do during the war (WW2) and joke about doing spy jobs for England. Because of their high education during their childhood, they were assigned as decoders and swore secrecy to start the job. But as it was during wartime, they didn't have enough workers to work all day so they had to make Pamela work the night shift that put a toll on her mental health. Albeit just being a newcomer to work, she was forced to work day and night for over 20 hours with minimal rest and an overabundance of pressure. On top of this atrocious workload, she received information that her lover was released from German captivity and had flown back to England. Not being able to handle the stress in just a short amount of time, Pamela fainted and was ordered to go back home and rest for a week. 

    Thoughts:

    For an introduction, I thought this book did a splendid job compared to many other books I have read. It set a clear setting and situation of the war which will be continued throughout the story (as the title says "A novel about World War 2") and it introduces the characters in a manner that was engaging yet informational. One thing that this book did an excellent job of compared to a low-level book is not talking about the minor characters as much and establish dominance on the main character. As in the first chapter we are introduced to Pamela and Trixie, yet we know that Pamela is the main character and not Trixie as the description of the character and actions are far deeper on Pamela's part. 

Chapter 2: 

    Chapter Two starts in a completely different setting from the first and starts off with the narration of the gamekeeper's son, Alfie. The place is Farleigh Place where the Sutton family lives in the quiet countryside of England where Roderick Sutton, the Earl of Westerham owns. On the way to the Sutton house, Alfie found a peculiar object in the enormous yard, and after a close inspection finds out that it was a corpse of some kind of soldier. Surprised yet somehow used to see a corpse, Alfie rushes towards the house to tell an authority about the body. On the way to the front door, Alfie coincidentally bumps into Pheobe Sutton the youngest of the Sutton family riding her horse unattended, and demands that she must not go past where he is. Eager to know what he was talking about Phoebe called her father to come and takes a look at the body with her father. 

    Thoughts:

     Again we are introduced to a completely different setting but we are able to understand both Alfie and Phoebe's character and the situations and difference in social status that they stand in, in just a short amount of time. The small movements and gesture, their actions clearly depicts what kind of persons they are. For example, we see Alfie used to seeing bodies because of his poor status and shows how he is used to running errands in targeted parts of England. Pheobe on the other hand is a rich yet independent child as she wanted to ride her horse without the attendance of her governess. 

Chapter 3: 

Chapter 3 was a rather shorter chapter and it continued the dead body event from the last chapter. It starts off with a conversation between two servants of the Sutton house, and they were talking about the reasons a soldier would be in such a place.  After that, we come back to Pheobe who is now telling everyone in the house that she found a corpse and called her sister Diana to come to see the body with her. 

    Thoughts: 

    As this chapter was shorter than most of the other chapters, I don't have much of an opinion on this chapter. I thought it was a good place to introduce a filler chapter to extend the story as it is right after a big event and the readers were probably engaged in the story. This chapter further shows Pheobe Sutton's character with a child-like energy, as she ran around the house bragging about finding a dead body in the yard.

Chapter 4: 

    The dilemma continues with the first scene introduces us to the Royal West Kents, which the army placed near Farleigh. Conversation between Lord Westerham (Rodrick Sutton) and Colonel Pritchard starts and reveals that though he was wearing a West Kent Uniform, they didn't have Parachutes like the one the man was wearing. Colonel Pritchard said he did not recognize the face as it was covered with blood and was mashed up and said further inspection was necessary to determine who he was. The only guess they were able to come up with was a failed parachute practice but doubt grew as Lord Westerham stated how the weather was perfect for these kinds of training as there were minimal wind and clear skies. 

    Thoughts:

    This chapter mostly talks about the body and slightly introduces the idea of a German Spy. We are also introduced to the Royal West Kents, an army located near Farleigh, and Colonel Pritchard explaining to Lord Westerham. I thought that this part did a good job in creating an eerie vibe and gave out a mysterious aura about who and why there was a soldier in the yard. As the chapter ends with just an inspection of the body without any clear answers it made me want to read on to the next chapter. 

Chapter 5: 

    Not much happens in chapter 5 as it starts off and ends with a family breakfast where we are introduced to Lady Westerham (Esme), wife of Lord Westerham, and Olivia Sutton, the eldest of the Sutton children. They return to breakfast after Lord Westerham was interrupted by the body and talk about the letter they got from the Prescott's about how their son, Jeremy Prescott (Pamela's lover) came back to England. 

    Thoughts: 

    One thing that I have noticed throughout the chapters is that the characters are introduced 1 or 2 people per chapter and not the whole cast in one chapter. I thought that by doing this. they were able to go deeper into each character unlike if they had just rushed to introduce everyone which would have only gave us a shallow understanding of each character. Another pro that this technique has is that showing one or two characters at a time, it allows the next person to clearly show their characters. I thought this way because the characters that were introduced in the previous chapter will have on to help build the type of person that that new character is. For example, I found how Pheobe was the child-like youngest sibling, we were able to compare that to the mature, Olivia who was married and independent, unlike phoebe.