How To Read Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Books in Order

AMC’s on-screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches recently came to Netflix, giving fans of all things witchy a new show to sink into. If you loved the show and want to read the source material, you’ll need to know how to read the Mayfair Witches books in order.

All the Mayfair Witches Books in Order

The show Mayfair Witches is based on Anne Rice’s book series, Lives of the Mayfair Witches. The adaptation takes quite a few liberties with its source material, changing characters and plot points. So even if you watched the TV series, the books offer new and different insights into the characters and events.

There are three books in the original trilogy, and some of the characters from those books later cross over into the The Vampire Chronicles series. To really get the full picture, therefore, you’ll want to read all six books—and maybe the rest of The Vampire Chronicles series as well. Here’s every Mayfair Witches book and the order we recommend reading them in.

Lives of the Mayfair Witches Trilogy

The original trilogy can be read in publication order, which is also chronological order in terms of the story’s events.

• Book 1: The Witching Hour, originally published in 1990.
• Book 2: Lasher, which came out in 1993.
• Book 3: Taltos, released in 1994.

The trilogy follows Dr. Rowan Mayfair, played by Alexandra Daddario in the adaptation, over several years of navigating her powers. Her love interest, Michael Curry, a central character in the novels, does not appear in the adaptation. Instead, he is combined with a scholar called Aaron Lightner from the books and reimagined as the character Ciprien Grieve, played by Tongayi Chirisa.

Vampire Chronicles Books Featuring Mayfair Witches Characters

If you want to follow along with what happens next for some of the characters in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, you’ll need to dig into some of the Vampire Chronicles books.

It’s important to note that the series begins with the well-known Interview with the Vampire and has five additional titles before you reach the books that feature characters from the Mayfair Witches books. To truly know what’s going on, you may want to read the first six books in the series before you jump into the crossover titles.

The books in The Vampire Chronicles that feature some of our Mayfair Witches are:

• Merrick, book 7 in the series, published in 2000
• Blackwood Farm, book 9 in the series, published in 2002
• Blood Canticle, book 10 in the series, published in 2003

After Blood Canticle, there are three more books to finish out The Vampire Chronicles, but the arc involving Merrick Mayfair, a cousin from the original trilogy, does not continue. So if you’re just here for the witches, you only need to read the original trilogy plus these three spinoffs.

You can watch the Mayfair Witches here.