The Blade in the Angel's Shadow is a fantastical retelling of the birth of the British Empire that is based upon the real-life machinations of Dr John Dee, the renowned mathematician, geographer and astrologer at the court of Elizabeth I.

Captain Lament Evyngar and her Sergeant-at-Arms Pieter Hertgers are forced to make a pact with Dr Dee, and Lament is marked forever during a ritual involving Angelic entities. They are sent on a quest into the Spanish Netherlands of the Eighty Years War, which is further being twisted by strange otherworld creatures who use mankind for their own ends. Lament is given a chance to regain control of her destiny, but there are powers at work that will not let her go so easily, and so she must locate the objects required by Dr Dee and return to London and a Royal Court that is controlled by something far from human.