Deborah Harkness announces new book in A Discovery of Witches series

Calling all A Discovery of Witches fans!

Great news: Dr. Deborah Harkness, author of the All Souls series, has finally announced the next installment’s title and release date: THE BLACK BIRD ORACLE. 

Sounds ominous, don’t you think?

When does the new A Discovery of Witches book come out?

The Black Bird Oracle, the fifth novel in the A Discovery of Witches series, will be coming out on July 16, 2024 in the US (published by Random House Publishing) and in the UK (published by Headline Publishing Group).

Are you ready to follow Diana and Matthew on another magical adventure?

If you’ve ever watched the A Discovery of Witches show starring Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer and loved it, you gotta give the books a try. The show is an incredibly faithful adaptation and the books delve even deeper into the intricate politics of this magical world.

Dr. Harkness also revealed the two gorgeous covers for The Black Bird Oracle, one for the US and one for her UK publisher:

What is The Black Bird Oracle about?

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two other-worldly beings found themselves at the centre of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, travelled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: ‘It’s time you came home, Diana.’

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power…if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

The book will be 496 pages long.

How many books are there in the A Discovery of Witches series?

A Discovery of Witches is an adult fantasy and romance series made up of five novels and one compendium. It used to be called The All Souls Trilogy and is now more commonly referred to as The All Souls Series or ADOW series.

The Black Bird Oracle is the fifth novel in The All Souls Series by Deborah Harkness, after A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life and Time’s Convert. There is also a companion guide called The World of All Souls: A Complete Guide To A Discovery of Witches.

Dr. Harkness is working on at least one other book in the ADOW series, which she’s revealed will revolve around the beloved character Gallowglass de Clermont.

It’s time to start catching up on reading (or re-reading!) the books. And while you’re at it, why not enjoy binging the TV series as well? A Discovery of Witches is now available on Amazon Prime Video on the US, and on Sky in Europe.

Want to know more about The Black Bird Oracle? Dr. Harkness is revealing clues on her Twitter account. She will soon share the first few pages of the book in her entertaining and informative monthly newsletter, The Blast.

You can pre-order The Black Bird Oracle now.

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