A neurosurgeon finds a drowned man off the California coast and brings him back to life. She is Rowan Mayfair, and she does not yet know why she can do it. He is Michael Curry, and when he wakes up, his bare hands show him visions of everything he touches. Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour, published by Knopf in 1990, starts there and runs to nearly 1,000 pages. It is the first of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches. One warning for our regular readers: this is a gothic horror novel, not a cozy mystery.
What Is Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour About?
Rowan was raised in San Francisco by adoptive parents and knows nothing about her birth family. She is unaware of the family’s witchcraft and only knows that her mind can heal and can also harm. Michael lost his family in a fire as a child in New Orleans and now restores old houses. Since his drowning he wears gloves, and he half-remembers a promise he made to beings on the other side.
Then Rowan’s birth mother, Deirdre, dies in New Orleans. Michael is already being pulled back to the city, and Rowan follows him there. Both end up at the family mansion on First Street in the Garden District, the house Michael has been drawn to since childhood. An elegant stranger seems to watch the family there.
Between their chapters runs a second tale: the file of the Talamasca, a secret order of psychic scholars. It follows the Mayfair family across four centuries. The trail starts in 17th-century Scotland and passes through Amsterdam and the France of Louis XIV. The Mayfair fortune is made on the coffee plantations of Saint-Domingue, and the story goes on to Civil War New Orleans. In every generation one woman inherits the family’s power, and a spirit called Lasher haunts her. Rowan is the last of thirteen witches.
The Mayfair Family and the Other Main Characters
- Rowan: a brilliant neurosurgeon, adopted at birth, and the heir to the family fortune.
- Michael: a contractor born in New Orleans, with psychic hands since the accident at sea.
- Aaron Lightner: a scholar of the Talamasca who has studied the Mayfairs for decades.
- Deirdre Mayfair: Rowan’s mother, whose death brings Rowan to New Orleans.
- Aunt Carlotta: the stern old woman who rules the house on First Street.
- Suzanne, Julien and Stella: Mayfairs from the past, from the first Scottish witch to a 1920s flapper.
The spirit who haunts the family is patient, seductive and very old, and he wants something only Rowan can give him.
Our Review: A Great Haunted House Inside a Very Long File
The best thing in the book is New Orleans. Rice writes the heat, the rain and the crumbling First Street house with real love. She knew the setting well: she modelled the Mayfair house on her own Garden District home at 1239 First Street. The family history is the other strength. The Mayfairs are a family drawn to poetry and philosophy as well as to murder, and each generation adds a new scandal.
The weakness is the pace. It takes a couple of hundred pages before the story grips you, and the Talamasca file stops the present-day plot for long stretches. Kirkus called it an occult romance with messy writing, but a story that stamps itself onto the brain. That matches our experience. Be ready for explicit sex, incest within the family line and violence. The novel won the 1991 Locus Award for best horror novel and spent 22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Is The Witching Hour a Stand-Alone Book?
Not really. The historical file is complete within the book, but the climax moves fast and the present-day story ends on a cliffhanger. Kirkus said the reader is left hanging, and the second novel, Lasher, picks up straight from the last page. You can read it on its own, but you will want the next book at hand.
Lives of the Mayfair Witches in Order: How Many Books?
The series has three books, and the publisher numbers The Witching Hour as book 1 of 3:
- The Witching Hour (1990)
- Lasher (1993)
- Taltos (1994)
Rice later brought the family into her vampire world in three crossover books: Merrick (2000), Blackwood Farm (2002) and Blood Canticle (2003). They count as books 7, 9 and 10 of The Vampire Chronicles. With them, the saga runs to six books.
What Order Should You Read Anne Rice Books In?
Anne Rice‘s own website lists her books by series, each in publication order, and that is the safest guide. Her main series are:
- The Vampire Chronicles, from Interview with the Vampire (1976) to Blood Communion (2018);
- the Mayfair books, from The Witching Hour to Taltos;
- Ramses the Damned, from The Mummy (1989) to The Reign of Osiris (2022);
- The Wolf Gift Chronicles, two novels from 2012 and 2013.
Our suggestion: read the Mayfair books and the earlier vampire books before the three crossovers, because those build on both series. You do not need any vampire book to start The Witching Hour.
Rice was born in New Orleans in 1941 and died in 2021. She grew up in a Catholic family in New Orleans, and the city she knew as a child fills this book.
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches on AMC
The TV adaptation, Anne Rice‘s Mayfair Witches, premiered on AMC in January 2023, with Alexandra Daddario as Rowan. Two seasons have aired, and AMC has announced a third season for 2027, set in Salem. The show follows the books loosely. There is no Michael, and a new character, Ciprien Grieve, combines him with Aaron Lightner.
Looking for a Witch Story That Is Actually Cozy?
Try Juliet Blackwell’s Secondhand Spirits. Its witch, Lily Ivory, runs a vintage clothing shop in San Francisco, Rowan’s city. She solves a murder in a few hundred pages. Madelyn Alt’s The Trouble with Magic is set in the small town of Stony Mill, where an antiques-shop clerk discovers her own gift. For another dark Southern novel with supernatural neighbors, read Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark. Our witch cozy mysteries page lists more.
Quick Facts
| Title | The Witching Hour |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Rice |
| Series | Lives of the Mayfair Witches, book 1 of 3 |
| First published | 1990, Alfred A. Knopf |
| Length | Nearly 1,000 pages (965 in the first edition) |
| Setting | San Francisco and New Orleans, with a family history that reaches back to 17th-century Scotland |
| Main characters | Rowan Mayfair and Michael Curry |
| Audiobook | Unabridged, narrated by Kate Reading (Random House Audio, 2015), 50 h 2 min |
| Award | Locus Award, best horror novel (1991) |
| TV | Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (AMC, from 2023) |
| Next book | Lasher |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Witching Hour a cozy mystery?
No. It is a gothic horror book and a family saga with explicit content. There is no amateur sleuth, and the violence is not kept offstage.
Do I need to read the Vampire Chronicles first?
No. The trilogy stands on its own. The vampires only meet the family in the later crossover books.
How long is the audiobook?
The unabridged recording, read by Kate Reading, runs just over 50 hours.