The Summer before the War: a Novel / Helen Simonson 465 pp. (Advance Reader's Edition)

I very much enjoyed this author's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.  This second novel was still a pleasure, but not quite up to the earlier mark.  Beatrice arrives in Rye in August 1914 to begin teaching Latin at the local grammar school.  She's cautiously accepted into local society by the good-hearted local mover and shaker Agatha Kent and her two nephews Hugh and Daniel.  The hot summer gives way to fall, war is declared, and things happen both silly and serious.  Busybodies gossip and plan a parade; the town takes in seriously traumatized Belgian refugees.  The first 75% of this novel moved extremely slowly and featured what I think of as 'Downton porn,'  that is, great dialogue and period detail without a lot of action.  The last 100 pages finally carried the narrative propulsion of Simonson's earlier novel and made the beginning worth the wait.