The Blade In the Angel's Shadow - Book Tour and Giveaway

​ An Empire born through Angelic magic, or a hell on Earth? One woman’s sword may decide it all.  

The Blade in the Angel’s Shadow
by Andy Darby
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Swords and Sorcery  

The Angels want to usher in Revelation, and what better way than through the creation of the British Empire?

Infamous swordswoman Captain Lament Evyngar awaits execution in the Tower of London, charged with heresy and attempted regicide, but all is not as it seems. Unwittingly entangled in the schemes of the Angels, she recounts her tale to the Queen's sorcerer, Dr Dee, who is more than a little responsible for her predicament.

Dr Dee has designs for a British Empire that will dominate the world for ages to come, and with the aegis of the Angels, he has the power to make it a reality. But, two elements are missing, and through blackmail and occult ritual, Lament and her giant Dutch comrade are forced to journey to the war-ravaged Spanish Netherlands on a quest that will reveal the truth about strange entities that use humans to fight out their eternal conflicts and in doing so alter the course of history forever.

So, a bargain is made, a child is created, and death is no longer an option for Lament as she is swept back and forth through time and space, her identity suddenly made fluid until she can at last return to the London of Queen Elizabeth I and face the cosmic horror that is unveiled in the royal court.


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​As she scans the room, Lament finds her vision shifting, as if she is looking through a many-faceted gem that breaks up the image. She blinks hard, but the visual effect remains, and some of the men in the room begin to blur and take on a warped appearance, their faces becoming demonic.
She reflexively grabs the hilt of her dagger while the fingers of her other hand tighten on the edge of the tabletop. This is all she can think to do to keep herself grounded in what she takes to be reality. Looking over at Pieter, she sees nothing unusual about the big man, but when she turns to see who has just pushed their way through the outer door, she is greeted with a strange sight.
A tall, thin figure with a pallid face, almost corpse-like, strides into the tap room. He seems to be clad in countless strips of undulating grey that remind Lament of ribbons of dead flesh. Fastened to the grey strips are lead-coloured metallic objects in the shape of stars, moons, and thunderbolts. At the ends of the strips are jangling hooks and bells. As he moves, the whole ensemble seems to drift around him as if he is somehow underwater.
A pungent smell of ozone fills the air as if there has been a lightning strike, and Lament’s fingers grip the wooden surface even harder.
“Hey, are you alright, my friend?” Pieter’s massive hand claps Lament on the back, and the vision disappears as if it was part of a play at the Globe and a curtain has come down.
“Yes, yes. Sorry, big man.” Lament pries her hand from the table and wipes it across a suddenly pale face, noticing for the first time the sweat on her brow.
“I am maybe a little tired still from the events of the past few days.” She grins unconvincingly and raises her ale pot, and out of the corner of her eye, she notices that the tall figure is just a captain dressed in buff coloured doublet and hose slashed with scarlet and sporting a cloak of dark grey cloth shot through with a silver thread. His aquiline face is framed with chestnut brown ringlets, and a forked beard and moustache add to his debonaire appearance.
Lament smiles to herself. Dr Dee’s ritual has taken more of a toll on her mind than she had thought. But then she catches a glimpse of the tall figure reflected in the decorative copper plates hanging on the wall, and for a moment, the death’s head is there once again.
The room spins, and Lament fears she may fall from the bench. She is sweating profusely, and her hands are trembling a little. The ale sloshes over the edge of the pot, splashing the tabletop and dripping onto her breeks. She feels Pieter move closer to her and hears his deep, gruff voice whisper as best it can, “You had better not be coming down with the plague, Lam. You are sweating as if you have an ague. Do you not feel well?”
“I am sound in body, my friend, but I am beginning to fear for my sanity. I need some fresh air, and I need to tell you something that until now I thought was not important.”
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 Andy is a lifelong fan of fantasy, swords and sorcery, and weird tales. He also has a bit of an obsession with historical fiction/fantasy and alternate histories.

Andy lives on the north coast of Cornwall in the UK with his artist wife, teenage daughter, three cats, and two ponies. He is contantly running out of shelf space for the ever-increasing book collection.

Other books by Andy:
Me and the Monkey: Chronicles of the Monkey God Vol 1 & 2
The Paddington Incident


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An Unexpected True History of Dr Dee – Andy Darby

Dr John Dee is the chief instigator of the events that unravel in The Blade in the Angel’s Shadow. Through his medaling in Angelic magic, he creates the conditions for what happens to our protagonists and, beyond that, alters the course of world history in the belief that he can return humanity to the state of grace it enjoyed before the Fall. He is the magical spider in the centre of the web of intrigue that causes ripples through time itself. Or, at least, that is how I have chosen to paint him for this story. But, in truth, Dr Dee is a complex character in his own right, someone who actually existed in the Tudor world beyond his part in the book.

Dee, born in 1527, studied mathematics and astronomy at Trinity College, Cambridge, before moving to Louvain in the Low Countries to study geographical arts. Returning to England following the death of Henry VIII, he took up positions in several prominent households where he acted as advisor and tutor. He appeared to be on the verge of becoming a favourite of the young King Edward VI, and he seemed destined to enjoy rank and wealth. But, upon the death of the young Edward, his fortunes were thrown into turmoil with the ascension of Mary. Dee’s father was arrested as a Protestant activist, and with no benefactors, Dee was suddenly forced to fend for himself.
In 1555, Mary’s supporters began to burn prominent Protestants, and the officers of the Privy Council were dispatched to arrest Dee. The accusations against Dee were serious, focusing on his religious leanings and his mathematics, which was associated with the magical ‘black arts’; the term calculating was synonymous with conjuration. After three months of questioning and the collapse of the evidence against him, he was accused of heresy and taken to be questioned by the Bishop of London. Dee, refusing to be swayed, stood firm in his beliefs, always contending that his theology was founded on ancient principles and confirmed by science. His resilience and intellectual prowess were evident, as he managed to fit into the new Catholic order and, therefore, survived where many of his peers did not. 1558, Mary died, leaving all those associated with her regime and religion in a dangerous position, not least the Bishop of London and Dee, who had been made his chaplain.
Fate smiled on Dee in the form of Elizabeth. As one of the country’s leading natural philosophers who had revived an interest in mathematically based astrology, he was asked to cast a horoscope setting the date for her coronation. Soon after the coronation, Dee disappeared from the historical record for nearly five years. It is believed that he spent much of this time abroad collecting books and researching the Cabala. Returning to England in 1564, he presented Elizabeth with a copy of his book ‘The Hieroglyphic Monad’, which fascinated her, and she promised to become Dee’s ‘scholar’ if he disclosed ‘unto her the secrets of that book’.
Dee became an important figure in the promotion of the idea of a ‘British Empire’ advocating for the establishment of English colonies abroad, with English exploration and the expansion of English trade being at the fore. He strongly supported efforts to find a Northwest Passage to Asia and to discover the continent of ‘Terra Australis Incognita’, which he was convinced existed in the southern hemisphere. Dee posited a formal claim to North America on the back of a map drawn in 1577–1580; he noted that "circa 1494 Mr. Robert Thorn his father, and Mr. Eliot of Bristow, discovered Newfound Land." In his Title Royal of 1580, he wrote that Madog ab Owain Gwynedd had discovered America, intending thereby to boost England's claim to the New World over that of Spain. He also asserted that Brutus of Britain and King Arthur, as well as Madog, had conquered lands in the Americas so that their heir, Elizabeth I of England, had a prior claim there. The famous English navigators Frobisher, Drake, Borough and Raleigh all sought out Dee for his mathematical and technical expertise.
His home at Mortlake became the repository of his extensive library, the largest in England, and collection of alchemical apparatus, and the Queen frequently consulted with him on scientific and astrological matters. She even visited his home on occasion.
In the 1580’s Dee began his ‘angelic conversations’ with the help of a number of mediums, the most notorious of which was Edward Kelly. During these alleged conversations, Dee was told to assist the angels’ plans for the bringing about of the end of the world, specifically with regard to gathering the twelve tribes of Israel. With the goal of bringing together Catholicism and Protestantism and bringing Judaism, Islam, and paganism into the fold of a new Christianity, this new world religion, along with the plans that Dee had already laid for a British Empire, would enable the angels to unite the entirety of humanity into one state and one church, directed by the angels themselves. During this time, he created a completely new language with its own grammar and syntax. But, following an abortive journey to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, where he failed to produce gold from base metal, he found his reputation and finances damaged beyond repair by his association with the rogue Edward Kelly.
When Elizabeth I died in 1603, he lost his only access to the royal court and found himself a pariah. The new king, James I, was very much against the supernatural and Dee found himself spending his remaining years defending himself against accusations of being a sorcerer. He died a pauper at his home in Mortlake in 1608.


Despite Dr Dee’s ignominious end, he was a polymath and possibly one of the most brilliant men of the Renaissance, engaging in cutting-edge science, which he intertwined with the occult. He is reputed to have cast a spell which caused the storm that wrecked the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth used the well-travelled and loyal Dee as a spy, something that Ian Fleming used as inspiration for his James Bond creation, including the famous ‘007’, with which Dee is said to have signed his letters to Elizabeth. The remaining possessions of Dr Dee are housed in the British Museum and include a black obsidian mirror, which he used to perform his scrying. The mirror is believed to be of Aztec origin and to have been taken to Europe by the returning forces of Hernán Cortés. All of this makes Dr John Dee a fascinating character who I may well have ill-used in my book, although who is to say?
Oh, and one more thing. In 1642, a confectioner and his wife decided to go and buy some ‘household stuff’. They spied a locked cedar wood chest in very good condition and decided to buy it. They returned home with it, and there it lay undisturbed for twenty years. In 1662, they decided to move the chest and, in doing so, heard a rattle. Upon investigating, the confectioner discovered a secret draw which he pried open with a knife and inside, they found a collection of books and papers. Unable to decipher the gibberish contents, they put the papers to one side. Their maid found the papers and decided that they would be good for lining pie tins and other such uses and proceeded to work her way through around half the pile before this was noticed and the papers were locked away again. In 1644, the confectioner died, and two years later, the Great Fire of London broke out. His wife fled with what possessions she could carry but was forced to leave the heavy chest although she did remove the papers and took them with her. She remarried to a warder of the Tower of London, and upon showing him the papers, he recognised their potential value, although he too could not understand them. But he knew a collector and expert in astrology, alchemy and the occult. Elias Ashmole became the owner of the remaining papers, which he found to be the surviving remnants of Dee’s Liber Mysteriorum, his book of mysteries. Which, according to the man in whose hand they were written, contained the secrets of the universe…

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