Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Enjoyable, but nothing special. It starts well. Major Ernest Pettigrew begins a friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani owner of the local store in his small English village. Complications ensue and there are some funny set-pieces. However, I thought there were some twists and turns at the end of the novel that didn't work and, overall, when all was said and done the characters remained pretty flat. It kind of had a Barbara Pym flair without her level of wit and subtlety, but not many writers have that.