Harkness shines again with ‘Shadow of Night’

Summer travel is what we crave right now, and Deborah Harkness, in Shadow of Night, takes us places we've never been before.

Last year, readers were spellbound by Harkness' best-selling A Discovery of Witches, a paranormal story with decidedly literary leanings. Fans and critics christened it a Harry Potter story for grown-ups. Its very adult romance between a brainy witch and an icy-hot vampire appealed to Twilight fans.

Discovery began with historian/witch Diana Bishop finding a mysterious ancient text in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Ashmole 782 is an enchanted book that disappears before Diana can discover its secrets. Its contents could reveal vampires' and witches' origin story and clues to why they're dying out in the 21st century.

Fortunately for Diana, Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist/vampire, also is an avid seeker of Ashmole 782. At the close of Discovery, newlyweds Diana and Matthew were poised to jump back in time to the late 16th century, where they hoped to find the missing book. As the sequel, Shadow of Night, opens, they've landed in Oxfordshire, the starting point for their adventures in Elizabethan England.

If you don't already know it, Harkness is a professor of history at the University of Southern California, and she's especially knowledgeable about the history of science, magic and alchemy, all of which play key roles in her novels.

Shadow of Night isn't just about wonderfully detailed descriptions of England in 1591, it's about being there. Readers time-travel as precisely and precariously as Diana and Matthew do to St. Paul's, the Royal Exchange, the marketplaces, even Elizabeth I's private chambers. A scene in which the ailing "Lizzy" ruminates on whether she'd be better off as a vampire is worth the price of admission to Shadow.

Diana and Matthew also mix it up with other historical figures, including Sir Walter Raleigh and Christopher Marlowe. A tiny plot thread delves into the centuries-old debate about how much of William Shakespeare's prose was stolen from Marlowe.

And in another enchanting set piece, the book hunters travel to Prague and the court of Rudolf II, the holy Roman emperor and king of Bohemia.

Series are hot right now, and Diana and Matthew will continue their adventures in a future book. Shadow ends as Discovery did with promises of more to come. "In every ending there is a new beginning," Matthew says. Lucky for us.