Diana Gabaldon’s latest book (the 7th in her Outlander series), An Echo in the Bone, picks up where A Breath of Snow and Ashes left off — with Brianna Fraser and Roger Mackenzie safely removed to the 20th century, and Claire and Jamie Fraser somewhat perilously consigned to the 18th. Unlike her other books, however, this story is told not from the viewpoint of Claire alone, but from the somewhat confusing multiple perspectives of various primary characters and via letters written in the 1700s to be read in the 1900s.

Readers of her other books in this series will know that Claire Randall has inadvertantly time-travelled from 1940s to 1750s Scotland where she has met and wed James Fraser, a Highlander. The series takes these two through numerous historical events and places from the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland to the wilderness of colonial America on the eve of the American Revolution. Along the way, Claire has returned to the 20th century to bear her daughter, Brianna, and journeyed back to the past again many years later to reunite with Jamie, daughter and friend Roger in her wake.

An Echo in the Bone takes place during the heart of the Revolution over a period of two years, from 1776 to 1778. Jamie and Claire have been driven from their home in the North Carolina mountains and are attempting a journey to Scotland to retrieve Jamie’s printing press, so he can re-establish his former trade in America in aid of the colonial rebellion. William Ransom, Lord of Ellsmere, has also arrived with his stepfather, Lord John Grey, to fight on behalf of Britain. Grey is doing everything in his power to ensure that his son will not be placed in battle where he might encounter his real father, Jamie. Meanwhile, Brianna and Roger have purchased the old Fraser homestead, Lallybroch, and are settling into a new life in Scotland in the 1970s with their children, Jem and Mandy. They are connected tenuously to the past through a series of letters written by Jamie and Claire, and read one-by-one throughout the story.

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