Lake Union Publishing, 396 pages, $14.95
Rhys Bowen is a very good storyteller. She has proven with her other historical mysteries (Molly Murphy, Lady Georgiana) that she can bring to life a kinder, gentler version of a different time. That’s what she has done as well with “In Farleigh Field,” a novel set during World War II in England.
Bowen works with the cliché of the British upper class and its sense of superiority, and produces a charming and strangely relevant story set during the horrors of Hitler’s march to dominate. Perhaps modeled on the real-life Mitfords, Bowen’s aristocratic family has five daughters. The oldest is prematurely matronly (Olivia). The next is having a wrenching affair with a Frenchman (Margot) Then comes our heroine (Pamela). Then we have poor Dido who had the misfortune of coming of age during the war, thus obviating the need for a debutante presentation at court. Sob. And finally — you knew there had to be at least one — the plucky youngest daughter (Phoebe), who is too smart for her own good, steals the show.
This is also the story of aristocracy depleted. Household staff have gone to war, leaving the “U”s to haul some of their own water, so to speak. Pamela (“Pamma”) has left home to join the war effort, primarily as a glorified clerk. Then she is tapped on the shoulder to do more when she becomes involved in reading German messages at Bletchley Park.
Margot becomes trapped in Paris when she refuses to leave when the going is good. When the going becomes rough, she is captured by the Gestapo and given untenable choices. Her narrative breaks the rhythm of the British story, and it could very well have been left out, but Margot has a part to play at the end.
Phoebe, of course, is the precocious child who sees too much. But is she capable of accurately understanding what she sees?
Toss in Pamma’s old flame, an RAF pilot (and fellow aristocrat) who was shot down over Germany and recently escaped from a detention camp. And also Pamma’s childhood friend Ben, son of the local vicar, is necessarily the lovelorn victim of Pamma’s charms. Of course, there are a bunch of other village characters, most of whom seems suspicious, most of whom could be German spies. Deadly deeds in a demure district.
It’s not that Bowen has created a unique mystery situation, it’s that she does it so competently and entertainingly.
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