Lives of the Mayfair Witches is a trilogy of supernatural horror/fantasy novels by American novelist Anne Rice. It centers on a family of witches whose fortunes have been guided for generations by a spirit named Lasher. The series began in 1990 with The Witching Hour, which was followed by the sequels Lasher (1993) and Taltos (1994). All three novels debuted at No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list. Some characters from the trilogy cross over to Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, a series of gothic horror novels featuring the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, specifically in Merrick (2000), Blackwood Farm (2002), and Blood Canticle (2003). A television series adaptation, Mayfair Witches, debuted on AMC and AMC+ in January 2023. Overview Susan Ferraro of The New York Times described The Witching Hour as "a ghost story about an evil spirit called Lasher who is so permeated with foreboding and evil that themes like abortion and incest are merely secondary. There is Christian symbolism straight and skewed, rough sex and necrophilia." Publishers Weekly wrote that "Rice plumbs a rich vein of witchcraft lore, conjuring ... the decayed antebellum mansion where incest rules, dolls are made of human bone and hair, and violent storms sweep the skies each time a witch dies and the power passes on." The publication called Lasher "another vast, transcontinental saga of witchcraft and demonism in the tradition of Gothic melodrama." The Mary Sue described the series as "half narrative, half exposition of the entire family tree". The website also noted the "overuse of incest" and casual treatment of horror and violence, which "permeates the Gothic atmosphere." Publishers Weekly wrote that "cutting-edge gene mapping intertwines with ancient mysteries" in Taltos. Alexander Theroux of the Chicago Tribune called Taltos "a dark and intimidating mystery" and wrote that Rice "continues the dark epic of the Mayfair witches, her saga of the occult ... that takes us on temporal and spatial journeys back through the centuries, probing plots of corruption and innocence, mortality and immortality, good and evil. The genre goes back to the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe and Horace Walpole, the kind of books, with their creaking armor, salivating monks and thunderstorms, satirized by Thomas Love Peacock in his Crotchet Castle." Characters Upon the death of her estranged biological mother Deirdre, California neurosurgeon Rowan Mayfair is shocked to find herself named the new designee of the Mayfair family fortune.