Drums of Autumn (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Drums of Autumn
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Diana Gabaldon
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = "Outlander" series (book 4)
genre = Historical novel
publisher = Delacorte Press
release_date = December 30, 1996
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 896 pp (mass market paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-385-31140-0
preceded_by = Voyager
followed_by = The Fiery Cross

"Drums of Autumn" is the fourth book in the "Outlander" series, written by Diana Gabaldon. The stories center around a time-travelling 20th century doctor (Clare Randall Fraser) and her 18th century Scottish husband (Jamie Fraser), and are located in Scotland, France, and America.

The heroine of the bestselling "Outlander", Claire, returns in "Drums of Autumn", reunited with her husband Jamie Fraser and facing a new life in the American colonies. As the preceding novel, "Voyager", concluded with Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire shipwrecked on the Georgia coastline - and happy to be out of Scotland - "Drums of Autumn" picks up right where "Voyager" left off. Except for a new set of lovers introduced subtly in "Drums of Autumn" and "Voyager", Brianna Ellen Randall and her suitor historian Roger Wakefield, safely ensconced in the 20th century. Now orphaned by her mother's departure to the past, Brianna struggles to accept her loss and satisfy her curiosity about a father she has never met, only to discover a tragic piece of "history" that threatens her parents' happiness in the past. This discovery sends Brianna back through time on a mission to save her parents and sends Roger after her.

"Drums of Autumn" is an intricate tale of the now famous lovers, Jamie and Claire, and their daughter who risked her life and future to save them. As the fourth in what is now a six-book series (according to the author there will be a Book 7, possibly a Book 8) of Claire Randall Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.