The Fiery Cross

In 1771, the Colony of North Carolina teeters on an uneasy edge.

The danger is not yet Great Britain, but rather an internal conflict that threatens the general peace. On one side are the colonial aristocracy, the rich and settled planters of the coastal plain; on the other, the struggling pioneers of the backcountry, scraping homesteads from the mountains of the west.

In the middle stands Jamie Fraser, of Fraser's Ridge. Born of good family, possessed at last of the land he has longed for, friendly with both the Governor of the Colony and the homeless survivors of Culloden whom he takes as his tenants, he is married to Claire Randall, a woman who is at once his life's greatest treasure - and his greatest danger.

Now a wife, mother and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander; out of place, out of time, but now by choice, linked by love to her only anchor - Jamie. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming Revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead - or may ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

Claire and Jamie know war, as only those can who have survived it. And no one who has followed the fiery cross to battle would willingly walk that path again - save for one reason: to secure the blessings of liberty not only for themselves, but for their posterity.

THE FIERY CROSS is Diana Gabaldon's fifth novel chronicling the lives and adventures of Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. Her previous novels are the international bestsellers Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and Drums of Autumn.