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Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander #9)

 

Summary (from the publisher): The past may seem the safest place to be . . . but it is the most dangerous time to be alive. . . .


Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1743, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same.

It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible.

Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s tea-kettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep.

Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family.

Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity—and thus his own—and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet . . . on his son’s behalf, and his own.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before.

Review: In the ninth volume of the Outlander series, Claire and Jamie are still living in the North Carolina backcountry. Although overjoyed to be reunited with their daughter Brianna and her family, the Revolutionary War continues to build and the peaceful home that the Fraser's have fought for is at stake. Meanwhile, Jamie's son William continues to grapple with the discovery of his true parentage and what that means for his own life. 

This novel picks up right where book number eight left off. As with all of Gabaldon's work, there is no shortage of action, high stakes journeys, and medical crises, all spanning hundreds of pages. Gabaldon loves to intertwine multiple storylines following different characters and this book was no different. On Fraser's Ridge, Claire and Jamie are embroiled with growing tension between loyalists and dissenters to the crown. Meanwhile, their nephew Ian embarks on a journey to visit his first wife, and ends up saving a widow and former friend to Jamie along the way. Claire and Jamie's daughter, Brianna suffers with a health complaint and travels to Charleston with her family on family business, on behalf of her husband's plans to be ordained, and to see her half-brother William. And William continues to struggle with his new identity while searching for his missing cousin, who has left behind a wife and new child. 

After thousands of pages, these characters feel like old friends. I continue to love Jamie and Claire's story most of all but have also come to love their extended family and friends and am deeply invested in their stories. As always, Gabaldon puts something for everyone in these novels: historical setting, medical drama, love stories, high stakes missions in a war-torn country, and more. 

If anything, I do wish the book focused more on Jamie and Claire's story. The book almost functions like multiple novels braided together. It's hard not to enjoy some characters and storylines more than others. While it's natural that as the characters age, the focus has shifted somewhat to the next generation of the family, I still consider them the main characters and wish more of the book had been spent from their perspectives. 

Stars: 4

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