Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon

Diana Gabaldon has released the hotly-anticipated ninth instalment in her Outlander series. Picking up where the last book left off, Claire and Jamie Fraser are reunited with their daughter Brianna and her family in 1770s North Carolina. As the clan reacquaint with one another, the Revolutionary War continues to draw them close – but the family are still figuring out their past. Slow-paced to start, Gabaldon’s latest addition weaves complicated plot lines, a weighty cast and improbable melodrama to create an exhausting read. You often feel the book could have cut 200 pages and several characters. At times compelling, the latest instalment sadly doesn’t live up to the original novel – or the pacy television adaptation.