Shadow of Night
Deborah Harkness
Viking, July 10 2012, $28.95
ISBN: 9780670023486

Vampiric genetic scientist Matthew de Clermont and Oxford historian but untrained witch Diana Bishop have married (see A Discovery of Witches). For a honeymoon, the newlyweds travel from a twenty-first century New York barn to sixteenth century Oxfordshire where they hope she can receive proper training in her craft and they can find the magical manuscript Ashmole 782, last seen in their century in the Bodleian library.

However, these are dangerous times for witches are burned at the stake and a twenty-first century female American professor fits the profile of witch rather than scholar. The pair meets his father and gets assistance from the top secret School of Night. However to solve the enigma of the Ashmole 782 before the paranormal species become extinct sends them on to the content heading to Prague.

Using a deep look at Elizabethan England as seen through the modern filter of the time travelers especially the historian, fans will appreciate this excellent, exciting middle fantasy in A Discovery of Witches saga. The storyline grips the audience from the moment the vampire and witch land five centuries in their past entangled together. Fans will relish touring the sixteenth century as Professor Deborah Harkness provides a fabulous alternate historical fantasy (the Bard will never be the same after this “double, double toil and trouble” role and Christopher Marlowe is a daemon).

Harriet Klausner