Ramses the Damned
gothic horror
Series · gothic horror
Lives of the Mayfair Witches
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series by Anne Rice has 3 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Witching Hour (1990).
- Books
- 3 books
- First published
- 1990
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: The Witching Hour (1990) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Witching Hour
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Witching Hour - Book 2:
Lasher
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Lasher - Book 3:
Taltos
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Taltos
About the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series
Lives of the Mayfair Witches is Anne Rice's other major gothic saga, a doorstop trilogy tracing thirteen generations of a wealthy, cursed New Orleans family bound to Lasher, a beautiful and ancient spirit who has attached himself to the Mayfair women and shaped their fortunes -- and their deaths -- for three hundred years. The Witching Hour (1990) centers on Dr. Rowan Mayfair, a neurosurgeon raised far from the family estate who doesn't yet know she's the latest in the witches' bloodline, and unfolds as both a multigenerational family epic and a slow-building horror novel as Lasher reveals what he actually wants from her. Lasher (1993) and Taltos (1994) push the mythology into stranger territory, tying the Mayfair curse to an ancient race with its own reproductive horror, and bringing the trilogy's cosmology closer to the vampire world Rice was building in parallel.
Where the Vampire Chronicles is confessional and character-driven, the Mayfair books lean into sweeping family-saga plotting -- wills, incest, inheritance, and generations of women who can't outrun what's been done to their bloodline. Rice later folded the Mayfair witches and the Vampire Chronicles into a shared universe, with characters crossing over in later novels from both series, though the original trilogy stands as a complete, self-contained story on its own.
How to read this series
Publication order, starting with The Witching Hour (1990). This is a single continuous story split across three long novels rather than three self-contained books, so read them in order -- Lasher picks up plot threads and character revelations directly from The Witching Hour's ending, and Taltos continues from there. All three are substantial (The Witching Hour alone runs over 900 pages), so this is a significant commitment best approached as one long saga rather than three separate reads. No prior Vampire Chronicles reading is required, though fans of that series will recognize later crossover references.
Frequently asked questions
How many Mayfair Witches books are there?
Three: The Witching Hour (1990), Lasher (1993), and Taltos (1994).
What order should I read the Mayfair Witches books in?
Publication order. The trilogy tells one continuous story, and Lasher and Taltos both continue directly from where the previous book left off.
Is this connected to the Vampire Chronicles?
They share a wider fictional universe and some later crossover appearances, but the original trilogy is self-contained and doesn't require reading the Vampire Chronicles first.
Is The Witching Hour based on a true story?
No, though the Mayfair family's New Orleans Garden District setting draws on real local history and architecture that Rice knew well from living in the city.
Was there a TV or film adaptation?
Yes -- AMC produced a television series, Mayfair Witches, based on the trilogy, which premiered in 2023.
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Reading order last verified .