The ''Lives of the Mayfair Witches'' is a trilogy of books written by AnneRice, author of ''TheVampireChronicles''. The series centers around an old family of witches -- the Mayfairs -- and their involvement with a spirit called Lasher. The books are:

* ''The Witching Hour'' (1990)
* ''Lasher'' (1993)
* ''Taltos'' (1994)
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!!This series provides examples of:
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Mayfairs.
* BodySurf: Lasher takes over Rowan's baby, turning it into a Taltos. He also temporarily borrowed Julien's body on several occasions.
* BurnTheWitch: People tried to do this to Suzanne Mayfair, only to have her sic Lasher on them. Janet, Ashlar's lover, is burned after she [[SayingTooMuch starts talking about the Taltos's old ways]] in front of the Christians.
* ChainedToABed: Rowan by Lasher to keep her from escaping.
* DealWithTheDevil: Lasher offered the Mayfair family wealth and power if they helped give him a new physical form.
* DeathByChildbirth: Most women suffer this after sleeping with a male Taltos. When Lasher attempts to create more of his race by raping other members of Rowan's familiy, they all miscarry and hemorrhage. Only Rowan survives, but she has to have a hysterectomy afterwards.
* DespairEventHorizon: Ashlar after his decision to convert his people to Christianity led to them being mostly wiped out. Summed up thusly:
-->At that moment I wanted no more of life. I wanted no more of suffering ordeath, or of the best of intentions resulting in abominable ruin.
* DropTheHammer: Michael kills Lasher with a hammer.
* AFeteWorseThanDeath: The Talamasca pretend to hold a wake for Aaron in order to keep Tommy and Marklin from escaping so they can confront them with what they did.
* {{Flashback}}: Multiple times.
* ForScience: Stuart's reason for killing people and manipulating events to get Lasher for Tessa.
* FromBadToWorse: Most of Lasher's backstory.
* HeroicBSOD: Michael goes into a depression after Rowan leaves with Lasher, and it takes Mona sleeping with him to snap him out of it. Rowan goes into one of these between ''Lasher'' and ''Taltos'' after killing and burying Emaleth, her daughter by Lasher.
* HollywoodHeartAttack: When Stuart pulls a gun on them, Rowan uses her powers to make him have a heart attack.
* IncestIsRelative: The Mayfairs. Even Michael turns out to be descended from Julien by one of the maids.
* KissingCousins: Mona Mayfair, who is determined to sleep with all her male cousins.
* LastOfHisKind: Ashlar, until he finds out about Morrigan.
* LivingMacGuffin: Tessa, and later, Morrigan.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: The deaths of the Taltos.
* TheNoseKnows: When Rowan and Michael come back from meeting with Ashlar, Morrigan smells his scent on them, recognizes it as another Taltos, and goes nuts. When Ashlar comes to visit, wondering why they haven't called, they scent each other, and end up running off together.
* OlderThanTheyLook: The Taltos, who remain young and beautiful as long as they live.
* PsychicPowers: Rice actively avoids using FunctionalMagic in this series as well as in ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles''. All preternatural phenomena and abilities are explained in psychic terms.
** Most Mayfairs possess at least some degree of {{Telepathy}}, which usually includes the ability to [[ISeeDeadPeople sense and communicate with spirits]]. The more powerful ones also have various MindOverMatter abilities, including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, psychic healing and (in Rowan's case) the ability to kill people with her mind.
** Mary Beth, Julien and Cortland all appear to have been capable of AstralProjection.
** Michael temporarily has psychometry after he nearly drowns, but quickly gets annoyed by people asking him to touch things. He loses this ability when Lasher tries to kill him.
* RapidAging: A newborn Taltos grows to the size of an adult in a matter of hours.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Stuart Gordon believed that Tessa was remembering things from past lives, not considering the possibility that she saw them first hand.
* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Stuart's two followers, Marklin and Tommy, end up trapped in one of these for betraying the Talamasca.
* StalkerWithATestTube: Stuart, who wants to see a Taltos birth for himself.
* SwitchingPOV: Several times.
* TeenPregnancy: Mona ends up pregnant by Michael, and gives birth to a Taltos daughter that she names Morrigan.
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl / WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: All Taltos end up like this when they get sufficiently old enough. Also, Julien Mayfair's hair had gone from black to white by the time he was 20 years old.
* WitchSpecies: The Mayfair witches
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