Shadow of Night: Book 2 All Souls Trilogy

by Deborah Harkness, 584 pages

Minor Spoilers!!


This is the sequel to A Discovery of Witches, which appeared on bestseller lists last year. The first volume begins when Diana Bishop, a history scholar and a witch, discovers a magical alchemical manuscript in Oxford's Bodelian Library (seen above). At first the book frightens her, awakening powers that she did not wish to possess. When she returns the book to the reference desk, it disappears into the bowels of the venerable library. But other creatures (vampires, demons and other witches) are all after the book known as Ashmol 782. For her own protection, Diana is forced into a partnership with handsome and brilliant geneticist Matthew deClairmont, who also happens to be a long-lived vampire (though not one who presently feeds on humans.)

This 2nd book takes up where the first one ended, with the pair's arrival in Elizabethan England. Diana and Matthew are still looking for the mysterious book, and also trying to find someone to teach Diana how to use her newly acquired powers. They are outlaws as well, since their relationship is forbidden by a covenant of The Congregation, which is kind of like a paranomal Spanish Inquistion. They travel all over Europe and meet all sorts of famous people of the age, some helpful, others lethal. Though there is some mention in the beginning of Diana's outlandish American accent, she doesn't seem to have much problem adapting to the Elizabethan age. It helps that she's a historian, and she does have Matthew to clue her in since he's been there before.

 I had a little bit of a problem with the "timey-wimey wibbly wobbly" stuff. I thought it should prove more of a handicap for Diana than it seems, and everybody is just a little too overwhelmed or charmed by Diana except for the dangerous and jealous demon known as Kit Marlowe. The book also glossed over the problem of travel in 1591. Maybe since the deClairmonts are so rich and powerful, they could jaunt from one country to another without much difficulty. All that nit-picking aside, the story does move along at a fast clip for such a long book. It ends with a lot of loose threads waiting to be knotted tidily up in the third book. If you liked Discovery of Witches, you will probably like Shadow of Night. If you found Discovery a bit too much like Twilight, then you might find the same issue with Shadow.

Juliet

by Anne Fortier, 447 pages

This is another bi-level story, one contemporary and the other historical, set in Renaissance Italy. A young American woman inherits a mystery but nothing else when her aunt dies. Yet the mystery supposedly leads to a hidden treasure somewhere in Italy. With nothing left to lose, Julie soon finds herself tracking down clues in the beautiful city of Siena. Her mother had been obsessed with the story of Romeo and Juliet, so Julie (named after Shakespeare's heroine, get it?) discovers that the Bard had it all wrong. The real Romeo and Juliet tragedy played out among the ancient families of Siena, not in Verona.

The historical part of the tale tells the "true" story of Juliet and her Romeo. Soon there are intimations that Julie's bloodline also goes back to old Siena. Hints of brooding enemies, modern and ancient, shadow Julie while she searches through Siena and her familial history. Is there really a treasure...will Julie live long enough to claim it....and what about Julie's evil twin?!

This reminded me of the romantic suspense written by authors like Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt. I enjoyed reading about old Siena and the lesser known aspects of the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. What was kind of interesting for me was that so much of the play is embedded in my psyche that I didn't have to look up quotes or background. It's all back in the dustier parts of the old memory banks. With the exception of some obvious plot twists, I did enjoy the book, especially the historical parts. Over all, worth giving it a go.

School of Night

by Louis Bayard  352 pages

School of Night fits into a category I like to call Shakepearean adventure: a modern day thriller based on documents/clues from the Elizabethan era. The current caper story includes a lost letter from Sir Walter Raleigh, alchemists' gold, secret ciphers, and a treasure map. Henry Cavendish is an unsuccessful Elizabethan scholar, and finds himself in the middle of scholarly intrigue, ruthless antiquities collectors, and a mysterious, and beautiful, security consultant. Henry has to use his knowledge of the School of Night, a secret debating club formed by Christopher Marlowe, Raleigh, and the scientific genius/alchemist Thomas Hariot, to solve the mystery. The book builds suspense as it alternates between the present day and Elizabethan stories, and results in a dramatic ending.