Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Private Matter Chapter 3 breakdown

The plot thickens in Lord John and the Private Matter Chapter 3. It turns out that more people knew O’Connell, and they suspected something dangerous.

Lord John Grey turns to Harry Quarry for more help. This time, it’s about O’Connell. As they go through the story and the fact that Scanlon may have been involved in O’Connell’s murder, the two agree that they need to report O’Connell’s living situation.

There is more to it, though. Lord John learns that his brother Hal suspected O’Connell of being a spy. This is a great chapter to let us get to know Hal a little more through John before fully introducing him to the series of books.

We also learn why John is the one to end up being pulled into the case. He’s the only one who isn’t suspected of having something to do with the man’s death.

Chapter 2 of Lord John and the Private Matter

The chapter starts with John meeting with Harry Quarry. As the two discuss everything John learned about Mrs. O’Connell and Mr. Scanlon, the tow decide that they need to report O’Connell’s living situation to the authorities.

On top of that, Harry has some information about O’Connell. It turns out that Hal suspected O’Connell of being a spy, although they don’t know who for. Hal decided to leave O’Connell alone but have someone following him once the regiment got back to London. The man who was following O’Connell was also Joseph Trevelyan’s footman, Jack Byrd.

Jack had bene following O’Connell for six weeks and hasn’t been heard of since the murder. Is Byrd dead, or did O’Connell learn about him and pay him off? There were no clues, and even Malcolm Stubbs hasn’t found anything that will help to get to the bottom of this.

The night before the regiment returned from France, O’Connell did get sent to take ordnance requisitions to Calais. However, all the ordnance requisitions of all British regiments were taken. That’s all intelligence and harmful in enemy hands. O’Connell went missing at the same time and when he was found, he appeared to be drunk.

Of course, he could have copied the information. Nobody knows since O’Connell wasn’t the only one with access to the information, so he couldn’t be arrested and forced to confess.

Now it’s up to John to get to the bottom of this. He was the only one not in the area at the time of O’Connell’s death, so he isn’t a suspect.

The topic moves back onto Joseph. It turns out that he doesn’t want to go to the brothel, claiming that he doesn’t visit them. However, Quarry says that Joseph is known to frequen one of them. He will go with John to talk to the women there for more information.

Could the chapter be used in an adaptation?

A lot of this chapter is necessary to the main plot. We need to find a way to get the information. The problem is that there’s a lot of telling and not showing. It could make it a little boring in terms of TV storytelling.

If a Lord John Grey series was developed, I could see us getting this information through flashbacks with O’Connell. Or, the show could stick to the route of Quarry sharing the information that is known. It wouldn’t take long to get through this.

With the way this novel is set up, this could take just an episode of a Lord John Grey series. That’s why I think a miniseries would work out well instead of an ongoing thing.

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