Shadow of Night

Spies, Alchemy, and the School of Night in Shakespeare's England

Spanning nearly twenty-five rich, immersive hours, *Shadow of Night* is Deborah Harkness’s spellbinding historical sequel to A Discovery of Witches. Fleeing the hostile supernatural Congregation in contemporary Oxford, tenured historian and witch Diana Bishop and her vampire husband Matthew Clairmont perform an audacious temporal leap, time-walking back to Elizabethan England in the autumn of 1590. Their dual mission is daunting: locate an intact copy of the bewitched alchemical manuscript Ashmole 782 before it was disassembled, and find a powerful witch mentor capable of teaching Diana how to harness her volatile higher magic.

Arriving in London, Diana discovers that Matthew was not merely a shadowy scholar in the sixteenth century, but a ruthless spymaster serving Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster William Cecil and a prominent member of the enigmatic 'School of Night.' Surrounded by legendary historical figures—including playwright Christopher Marlowe, mathematician Thomas Harriot, and poet Walter Raleigh—Diana must master complex Tudor etiquette, navigate deadly religious espionage, and confront Matthew’s terrifyingly darker, younger self. Harkness, a distinguished professor of Renaissance history, brings the muddy streets of Blackfriars, the alchemical laboratories of Prague, and the courtly intrigue of the Holy Roman Empire to life with breathtaking academic scholarship and sensory richness.

Narrator Jennifer Ikeda delivers a tour-de-force performance, voicing a massive international cast spanning French vampires, Elizabethan aristocrats, Bohemian alchemists, and Scots witches with exquisite linguistic fidelity and atmospheric grace. The romantic chemistry between Diana and Matthew deepens with mature, complex intimacy across every chapter. For listeners who crave scholarly Dark Academia, meticulous Tudor history, and sweeping supernatural romance on a single monthly credit, *Shadow of Night* is an irresistible twenty-five-hour journey.

All Souls Reading Order: • A Discovery of Witches (Book 1 – 23h 59m) • Shadow of Night (Book 2 – 24h 50m) • The Book of Life (Book 3 – 23h 30m) • Time's Convert (Book 4 – 17h 45m) • The Black Bird Oracle (Book 5 – 17h 30m)