Hi friends! Happy Friday! I’m very excited to welcome back author Barry S. Richman to Austenesque Reviews today! 🙌🏼

As you may have seen, Barry has released a new book recently – Follow The Drum!  🥁

If you are familiar Barry’s other books, than you know his stories often incorporate soldiers, war, and military history alongside Jane Austen’s characters. 📚

Barry is here today to share a little about the historical and military context for his new release. We hope you enjoy! 😊

 

Redcoats and Reputations: Marrying Military History with Jane Austen’s World

When Follow The Drum first stirred to life, it began not with cannon fire or courtship, but with a question: how does a man who lives by secrecy protect a child who cannot go unseen? From that paradox came the story. I reimagined Thomas Bennet not as a complacent country squire, but as a man forged in war and cloaked in silence—his past buried beneath layers of duty and deception. Then I gave him a daughter, Mary, born with albinism—a genetic aberration as visible as a white flag in a battlefield. Her condition, innocent though it was, threatened to unravel the fragile anonymity he had spent years building. The tale grew—no longer confined to Meryton’s parlours, but stretching across war-torn ports, intelligence networks, and the fraught inheritance of secrets kept too long. To begin the tale, I had to march into the archives of British military history and listen to the drums that beat behind the empire’s genteel façade.

Between 1780 and 1815, Britain fought not one war, but many—some with cannon, others with ink and silence. While Napoleon redrew Europe with sabres and treaties, the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War unfolded in parallel—a quieter conflict over trade, allegiance, and maritime supremacy. Dutch harbours, caught between empire and insurgency, stood under blockade. In Follow The Drum, I placed Thomas Bennet in that theatre—not as a soldier on parade, but as an engineer and agent, tasked with crippling fleets before they ever left dock. His world was one of false identities, smuggled orders, and men who killed not for glory, but to keep the enemy guessing.

Why marry this reality to Austen’s fiction?

Because both explore consequences—of pride, of prejudice, of choices made when honour and emotion collide. Austen’s genius lies in her precision: social navigation as deadly serious as swordplay. Her heroines manoeuvre through drawing rooms where a glance may wound and a whisper may ruin. In wartime, the stage broadens, but the stakes remain: reputation, duty, sacrifice.

Follow The Drum leans into that intersection.

Thomas Bennet, second son and Royal Engineer, is not merely a variation of Elizabeth’s father. He is a man forged by loss and tempered by conscience—flawed, irreverent, and unsuited to the ornamental idleness expected of the landed gentry. He sees systems, weaknesses, and threats where others see only station. He does not dance well, but he plans a naval sabotage with elegant precision.

Elizabeth, though not at the centre of the war’s machinery, remains a sharp observer of its aftermath. She is a young woman navigating a world reshaped by absence, tragedy, and the long shadows of her father’s service. Her instincts are hard-won—earned through conversation, misjudgment, and the slow realisation that those closest to her conceal more than they reveal. Where others shrink from discomfort, Elizabeth presses forward, challenging the silences war has left behind.

Mary, by contrast, stands at the heart of that tension between seen and unseen. Born with albinism, she draws notice not for her words, but for what she cannot hide. Her presence tests her father’s life of concealment. Yet she matures in an environment shaped by scorn and whispered rejection. With serenity rooted in faith—and the counsel of Colonel Fitzwilliam—she learns that visibility is its own kind of warfare: one must either shrink from it, or master it.

And presiding over this world—its war rooms, its borders, its bruised hearts—stands Colonel Fitzwilliam. No longer the affable cousin content with a minor role, he emerges here as the kingdom’s most formidable officer: strategist, swordsman, and silent confessor to those caught in duty’s snare. Present throughout the Napoleonic campaigns, he lent more than gravitas to Follow The Drum—he lent guidance. Through him, I charted the Peninsular War not as a historian but as a witness, shaping scenes with the thunder of hooves and dispatches. Some characters step from the shadows fully formed. Fitzwilliam did not merely step—he saluted, offered intelligence, and demanded to see the next set of orders.

Follow The Drum is not simply a variation—it is a reconnaissance into honour, concealment, and the quiet wars we carry home.

What a unique premise! I love all the new twists this tale incorporates and the spotlights on Mr. Bennet, Mary Bennet, and Colonel Fitzwilliam.  ✨

I love the idea of seeing each of these characters thrust into such new and challenging situations. 🤔

Thank you so much for sharing, Barry! I wish you all the best with your new release! 🤗

 

~ Book Description ~

Thomas Bennet is at the heart of a dangerous secret for the British kingdom. When his daughter is born with a grievous affliction, the attention that follows threatens to unravel the careful life he has built. Soon his family is broken, some lost forever.

Forced from Longbourn, Elizabeth Bennet is burdened by secrets she must keep. As she forges new friendships and finds herself drawn to a Darcy who has a turbulent past of his own, hard choices await.

Follow the Drum is a tale of loyalty, sacrifice, and the impossible choices that arise when the demands of a kingdom fracture the bonds of blood. As the Bennets navigate treacherous secrets, they wonder will saving the kingdom make them lose everything.

~ Connect with Barry ~

Website   ❧    Instagram    ❧    Facebook    ❧   Goodreads

~ About Barry ~

  Barry S. Richman combines his background in the armed forces and expertise with a passion for Pride recuperating at home after having his wisdom teeth extracted in and Prejudice retellings.

After two decades of exploring countless stories from the JAFF universe, his wife challenged him to try writing one. During a trip to Istanbul, Barry wrote four pages that wove his real-world experiences into alternate-universe stories inspired by Jane Austen’s characters. He continued from there.

He published his first novel, Doubt Not, Cousin, in 2023, followed by The Scarred Duchess in 2024. Follow The Drum continues his military-influenced alternate universe populated by characters familiar and new.

Barry and his “Jane Bennet” divide their time between Los Angeles and a seaside town in southwestern Turkey.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Barry is generously giving away 1 paperback book of Follow the Drum in conjunction with his visit to this blog!!  Woot woot! 

 

To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment, question, or some love for Barry!

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Barry
• This giveaway ends May 2nd!