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The two go their separate ways - he to Galveston with his new ensemble, she to San Antonio as an indentured governess to a family whose patriarch, the cruel and lecherous Colonel Webb, serves as the villain (every love story requires one). Following two brief encounters in which he displays his talents on his treasured Markneukirchen fiddle, Simon knows Miss Dillon is meant for him.

In the last days of the Civil War, the capricious 23-year-old Simon, leader of a ragtag crew of retired regimental musicians, sets his sights on the young, blue-black maned Miss Dillon. To say it’s obvious is not to deny the appeal of giving oneself over to an afternoon of love-seeking across the Texas frontier. Simon Boudlin, the military-dodging musician from Paducah, Ky., and his love interest, shiny-eyed Doris Dillon from Tralee, Ireland, after much toil, torment and adventure end up married, happy, living off the land of the Red River. And even if you haven’t, the conclusion isn’t difficult to foretell, though if you’re spoiler-sensitive and haven’t even glanced at “News,” skip to the next paragraph.

If you’ve read “News of the World ,” which was a bestseller in paperback, you already know how “Simon the Fiddler” ends its closing section could serve as a prequel, at least in the story of Simon and Doris. And while “News” transcends some of the hoary tropes of westerns - lending dignity and consciousness to its captive child - “Simon the Fiddler” sometimes tends toward the old-fashioned, sentimental and untrue.

The new novel tracks red-headed fiddler Simon Boudlin’s progress toward the same city, bent on reuniting with a woman he believes he is fated to marry. Her new book, “Simon the Fiddler,” shares a great deal of DNA with her the 2016 National Book Award finalist, “News of the World.” Set in postbellum Texas, each centers on the quest to rescue a young woman: “News” (soon to be a film starring Tom Hanks) follows 71-year-old Captain Kidd as he endeavors to return an orphan girl captured and raised by the Kiowa to her family near San Antonio. Perhaps it isn’t fair to judge a book by its predecessor, but in the case of Paulette Jiles, the impulse is irrepressible.