The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

This is the fifth instalment in the All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and The Book of Life, followed by Time’s Convert).  Whilst easy to dismiss as paranormal romantic fiction, there is real substance to the background of the series and its characters.  The first book commenced in present day Oxford University, where Dr Diana Bishop was a visiting American scholar and history professor.  Whilst trying to deny her latent powers as a witch of legendary lineage, a vampire (also an Oxford professor) takes it upon himself to protect her from other witches jealous of what she is about to discover in the depths of the Bodleian Library.

Books two, three and four carried the reader much further into English, American and French world history spanning 1,500 years (as told first hand by the vampire, Professor Matthew Clairmont).

This latest instalment is set in the present day.  Urgent, life threatening, family matters send Diana to Ipswich, Massachusetts to meet her father’s family for the first time and to accept her heritage of not one but two august witch lineages.  The book title refers to an extremely rare tarot card deck which, in the hands of an already powerful Dr Bishop, could change History.

This reviewer has become a fan of this author, enjoying the detailed European historical background spanning centuries, the banter between long lived vampires, daemons and witches, the academic life of Oxford University described in fine detail but mostly, following the adventures of Dr Bishop as she learns to embrace her heritage, balancing the duties of wife, mother, academic, coven member and higher, darker magic.

Reviewed by Belinda Coombs
MURDER AND CRIME READING GROUP