Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 21 breakdown

Jamie goes missing one snowy night in Outlander Book 4, Chapter 21

The Frasers just can’t catch a break! Jamie goes missing in the snow in Outlander Book 4, Chapter 21, and Claire has to go out to find him.

This is one of the longer chapters in the novel, coming in at around an hour and 30 minutes. While it is packed with detail and information, it’s not a chapter that was used in the storytelling on the TV show.

I can kind of figure out why it wasn’t used for the series. I’m sure show-first or show-only fans would have found the events in this chapter a little anticlimactic considering everything else that happens in the novel.

However, it is important in the book, giving us a look at Claire’s love for Jamie. There is no way she is letting him stay alone outside, even if it means they could both freeze to death.

There isn’t too much in the way of foreshadowing in this chapter. It mostly focuses on things in the moment, while offering a small flashback to a time when Claire was in the present day with Frank and Brianna. We also find out about the tradition she and Frank set up for Brianna at Christmas with A Christmas Carol.

Let’s delve straight into the Drums of Autumn chapter.