What books comprise the Lives of the
Mayfair Witches? Below is a brief synopsis of each book in the series
and cover
art from both domestic and
international editions.
Recommended Reading Order
The Witching Hour
Lasher
Taltos
Blackwood Farm
Blood Canticle
Merrick can be read at any point as it does not directly involve the First Street Mayfairs but if the order is to
be exact, it is between Taltos and Blackwood Farm
*The cover mockups were made with Free Online Book Mockup Maker
Covers shown are hard cover, trade and mass market paperback where available
The Witching Hour
"The doctor woke up afraid."
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.
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.
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...
Blackwood Farm
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...
3D models I made with the cameo that appears on the cover of Blackwood Farm
Blood Canticle
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.
