Witches and Vampires should never be friends (or more)

Deborah Harkness has written a series of fantasy novels about witches and vampires in the present day. The first one is A Discovery of Witches which I reread a while ago. I have recently reread the second two – Shadow of Night and The Book of Life. These three make up a main trilogy and there is one other book from the same world which I haven’t yet read and a new book being published shortly which I know nothing else about. There has been a TV adaption but I haven’t seen it.

The three books feature as their main character Diana Bishop. She is American but studying at Oxford University. She is a witch and a descendent of witches but she denies her background until she is forced to address it when she retrieves a lost book from the archives of the university and attracts the attention of other supernatural beings for whom it is important. She is attracted to Matthew Clairmont who is a vampire and very long lived. In addition to vampires and witches our world also contains daemons. All these people hide in plain sight and the three supernatural groups never mix and especially don’t become romantically involved.

In Shadow of Night Diana and Matthew escape to Tudor England to avoid attention because of their relationship, escape from their enemies and to find out more about the manuscript which is missing again. Diana learns more about Matthew’s past and her own talents and they meet some important characters for the ongoing story.

In The Book of Life the pair return to the current time and travel to America to research what is in the missing manuscript further. The book has a conclusion so subsequent books must be about peripheral events to the main story.

These are well written and complex modern fantasy stories. The author has put a lot of thought into her alternative history and she handles a large group of characters well. There is always a threat to the happiness, and indeed survival, of Diana and Matthew from a variety of sources. I found that Diana could be dangerously stubborn and there were occasions when I wanted her to see sense but usually she is a strong, capable woman. Matthew is more of a problem – I found his protectiveness threatening on occasion and I disliked his moodiness and his habit of keeping secrets. I also found the emphasis on yoga to be a bit odd.

On the whole though, these are very readable and enjoyable fantasy novels from an author who obviously knows her history. I enjoyed my reread and I look forward to future books set in the same world.