Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Private Matter Chapter 12 breakdown

The investigations into O’Connell and Trevelyan seem to connect in Lord John and the Private Matter Chapter 12. There is also someone from a previous chapter who turns up again.

The chapter starts with Lord John and Harry Quarry meeting. They are following up on a lead on the O’Connell matter. It turns out that a man Lord John met at Lavender House is connected to all this, and it looks like O’Connell and Trevelyan may end up connecting in some way.

There are a lot more questions that develop in this chapter. There are also more names brought up. This just leads to a messy investigation at the moment.

Breaking down Lord John and the Private Matter Chapter 12

Lord John gets to Harry Quarry, holding the novel that his mother had given him. It leads to some teasing, but the matter of O’Connell is on the minds of the two men. Harry wants to get to the bottom of this soon. It’s been a long day and he’s ready to go home.

The two head to a seedy tavern. Harry goes upstairs first and then John follows. However, Harry doesn’t want the man he’s with to know that John is there just yet, so John goes to another room. There ne sees Neil the C**t from Lavender House, who is shocked and scared to find out that John is there. It’s clear that his boss, Mr. Bowles, has no idea where Neil’s interests lie.

That doesn’t matter as Mr. Bowles immediately realizes who John is and that he knows about Lavender House. John realizes that Mr. Bowles knows Dickie, and that means John doesn’t have to hide that he knows about the place. He shares that he was looking for information about Trevelyan, but it turns out that O’Connell was there, too.

Are the two investigations connected? That’s not clear just yet.

What Mr. Bowles does share is that O’Connell was at Lavender House to sell the stolen information. Mr. Bowles is more than happy for John to continue the investigation, but doesn’t give any instructions on what to do or where to go next.

One thing Mr. Bowles does have is that O’Connell met with a man named Meyer. Nobody knows of this Meyer, suggesting it’s an alias. It seems like we got a lot of information but nothing useful, just yet.

To end the chapter, Mr. Bowles shares something that confirms to John he needs to push to bring an end to the upcoming wedding. Mr. Bowles says that John should be wary of Trevelyan marrying into the Grey family, but doesn’t say why.

Could this chapter be used in an adaptation?

With so much information, there’s no doubt that we’d see this chapter used if there was a Lord John Grey adaptation series. After all, this scene brings plenty of clues. It wouldn’t need to take up a lot of time in the story, either.

I could see this novel being spread over the course of two episodes. This would allow time for all the bits of clues to be sprinkled in throughout the series.

The chapter also goes into a clue as to Trevelyan being up to something. It really is starting to look like Trevelyan and O’Connell are converging into something together. How are the two investigations connected?

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