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What books comprise the Lives of the Mayfair Witches?
This particular series includes three books: The Witching Hour, Lasher, and Taltos.
The three additional books that combine the Mayfair Witches with the Vampire Chronicles are Merrick, Blackwood Farm,
and Blood Canticle.
Below is a brief synopsis of each book in the series from various sources,
such as Amazon.com and Books-a-Million. The cover art in the images of each book are from the hardcover, trade paperback
and mass market paperback editions. The paperback editions are shown in a tablet and a smartphone.
In addition to being the recommended reading order, the jump menu above
is designed to help you to easily navigate this page.
Merrick can be read at any point as it does not directly
involve the First Street Mayfairs. However, if the order is to be exact, it is between Taltos and Blackwood Farm.
To read Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle as part of The Vampire Chronicles, it's not really necessary
to read the Lives of the Mayfair Witches first. However, to understand how Mona Mayfair came to be in a place where
she crosses paths with Quinn Blackwood, reading the three books in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches explains this plot
point thoroughly.
The Witching Hour
"The doctor woke up afraid."
~WH pg. 3, Mass Market 1993 and Amazon Kindle Editions
This short sentence opens the long and detailed Lives of the Mayfair Witches as the first sentence of the first book.
Rowan Mayfair has grown up in a life of wealth and privilege in San Francisco. A neurosurgeon with an unusual gift for healing
patients, Rowan knows nothing of her family, the Mayfairs of New Orleans.
Michael Curry grew up in New Orleans but moved to San Francisco after high school and never returned. A firefighter's son,
he had the opportunity to go to college, then build a successful business restoring historic Victorian homes.
An accident at sea brings Rowan and Michael together. After Rowan rescues Michael from drowning in San Francisco Bay, Michael
wakes up with a psychic power in his hands and an urgent mission that sends him back to New Orleans. Just as he leaves, Rowan
gets a call telling her that her birth mother has died. Rowan immediately arranges to leave San Francisco for New Orleans
and when she gets there, her and Michael's destinies merge in one gloomy old mansion and a ghost that has haunted the Mayfair
family for over 300 years.
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Lasher
Lasher, the ghost that has haunted the Mayfair family for thirteen generations,
has been born in the flesh to Rowan Mayfair. With Rowan as his captive, Lasher manages to stay several steps ahead of the
massive international manhunt initiated by the powerful Mayfair family.
As the investigation continues, Mayfair women are dying of a strange hemorrhage due to miscarriage of an embryo that might
not even be human. Genetic testing is quickly revealing that many members of the Mayfair family possess an extra set of chromosomes
that lie dormant unless two people with the extra set of chromosomes reproduce.
As more and more evidence of a possibly heretofore unknown species emerges, including samples sent in secret by Rowan herself,
trouble brews in the Talamasca that makes things dangerous for those members already involved with the Mayfair family.
On top of that, massive funds from the Mayfair accounts are being withdrawn, and as it becomes clear that Rowan's signature
was forged on more than one occasion, and as reports come in of Rowan's declining health, and with more and more women dying,
it becomes a matter of extreme urgency that Rowan be found...and that Lasher be stopped.
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Taltos
Lasher is dead; Rowan is alive and healing slowly. A tentative peace has
been restored to the Mayfair family, until Talamasca scholar and Mayfair bridegroom Aaron Lightner is murdered by a hit-and-run
motorist. This causes Rowan to immediately come out of her state of catatonic grief, and initiate a search for the persons
responsible for Aaron Lightner's death.
Before Rowan and Michael leave for London, it is discovered that Mona Mayfair, the 13-year-old Designee of the Mayfair Legacy
upon Rowan's death, is pregnant. Mona had seduced Michael during Rowan's captivity with Lasher, and it looks like Mona is
Michael's last chance to have children.
As Mona's pregnancy progresses at an alarmingly fast rate, Rowan and Michael close in on Aaron's killers. They meet Ash Templeton,
who aides Rowan and Michael on their quest to get to the bottom of the unrest in the Talamasca and avenge Aaron. Ash then
tells them the long and violent history of the Taltos, all the while keeping it secret from them that he knows who Mona is...
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Merrick
The Vampire Chronicles Book 7
From Books-a-Million:
At the center of Anne Rice's new novel is the beautiful, unconquerable Merrick, a child--a witch with the power and magical
knowledge of a Medea and a Circe. She is a Mayfair of New Orleans, descendent of a family rich in its French and Spanish past,
steeped in the age-old tradition of voodoo. Into this strange and exotic world comes David Talbot, hero, storyteller, adventurer,
almost-mortal vampire, a visitor from another realm of the dark world.
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Blackwood Farm
The Vampire Chronicles Book 9
The Blackwood family has owned Blackwood Farm since Manfred Blackwood built
his empire in the 19th century. The present day family has no belief in ghosts, witches, or vampires but Quinn Blackwood
has had a doppelganger as his playmate, friend and confidante all his life.
When Quinn inherits Blackwood Farm upon the deaths of his grandparents, he sets about administering the estate with the help
of Jasmine and her family, who have worked at Blackwood Farm for generations. When Quinn finds the old Hermitage at Sugar
Devil Island, deep in Sugar Devil Swamp, he provokes the wrath of Petronia, a mysterious androgyne who wants the Hermitage
to herself.
A series of violent encounters puts Quinn in the hospital at Mayfair Medical, where he meets Mona Mayfair, who is the only
other person in his life who can see Goblin, his doppelganger. Quinn and Mona quickly fall in love, and he meets Rowan and
Michael, who warn him that Mona is very sick and that any sex between the two must be protected. The child Mona bore Michael
had been a Taltos who disappeared with Ash Templeton, but the birth left Mona critically ill.
When Quinn goes on a three year tour of Europe, he and Mona stay in touch by email until Mona becomes so ill that she can
no longer use a computer. Shortly after Quinn returns to Blackwood Farm, Petronia attacks him, abducts him and turns him
into a vampire.
As a vampire, Quinn has to make a difficult choice - find Mona and tell her what he's become or shield her from it? But a
bigger problem is brewing: Goblin is becoming more and more violent and dangerous. Unable to stop him, Quinn seeks out the
assistance of Lestat, knowing he is taking a great risk by going into New Orleans, Lestat's protected territory...
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Blood Canticle
The Vampire Chronicles Book 10
Lestat is back, up from his death sleep on the altar of St. Elizabeth's.
After he has helped Quinn send Goblin into the hereafter, and lost his beloved Merrick in the process, his grief is interrupted
by an intense exchange inside Blackwood Manor.
Mona now knows Quinn is a vampire, and Quinn is about to offer the Dark Gift to Mona. Once Lestat has intervened, he meets
Rowan Mayfair, and quite possibly falls in love for the first time in his existence.
Now Lestat has to juggle training two new vampires, and his love for Rowan Mayfair.
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