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Rowan Mayfair was known for her ability to heal with her touch as well as know when and where a person is bleeding. This made her an exceptional surgeon but a difficult person to everyone else. She was well liked but still different.  Her trips on her boat were her only salvation. Her beloved Christine was sea worthy and she preferred to go out alone since being around people made her uncomfortable. While out on one of her excursions, Michael Curry came into her life. He was clinically dead but Rowan knew there was a spark inside him by her gift, and revived him.

Michael Curry woke up with power in his hands that everything he touched, he knew all about it. It was driving him crazy and the visions he saw while he was dead wouldn’t let him be at peace. He knew that the visions meant something and he was brought back for a purpose but he couldn’t remember what he was to do.

The history of the Talamasca is a group of scholars and those who have abilities that study abnormal people and their lives. Which is how the history of the Mayfair Witches is kept. It seems that a being or ghost of some sort has been haunting the women of the Mayfairs for a long, long, time. Suzanne Mayfair had called up this being and he has attached himself to this family. He has helped them become very wealthy but when one dies, he takes his place by the next female witch in line. At long last there is Rowan.

Rowan gets a letter from Michael Curry that says he wants to meet her and lay hands on her boat to see if he could find his purpose of the visions. She wanted to meet with him since she has been dreaming of him for some reason.

Michael was born in New Orleans and walked by the Garden District and had fallen in love with a house there when he was a boy. Going back, he still could see “the man” or ghost of the house. It was the Mayfair house on First Street. When Aaron, a member of the Talamasca entices him to join him to learn more about the Mayfairs and Rowan herself, Michael couldn’t resist. Having fallen in love with Rowan when they first met, he wanted to know everything he could about her. It seems that the Talamasca knew the whole story back to Suzanne and her witch daughter, Deborah, which has ties with Peter, another member of the Talamasca.

This history is lengthy and very informative but it seems that it goes on forever but then at times this story flies by very quickly. I really enjoy this book. I have read it more than once. Actually the first time I read this series, I had started with Lasher. While at the bookstore, I was told that this book was first in the list, so I bought this one and read all them in order again. I was able to make sense of it by itself but much better with the whole series. I have a love of Louisiana now that’s for sure. You need to sit down with a cup of coffee and step into New Orleans back in the day. It is well worth it. I could write so much but it seems that I wouldn’t stop. There’s so much to tell and then again there is so much that I don’t want to reveal. Anne Rice has proven herself as a worthy vampire author but on to the witches and she’s magnificent.