Lasher is the second of three novels in acclaimed author Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. Published in 1993, the novel is a continuation of the story and themes of The Witching Hour, which was the first novel in the series. It is also one of Rice's first novels that concern witches and witchcraft.
Lasher tells the story of Dr. Rowan Mayfair once again, who has disappeared with the mysterious and probably evil Lasher. This causes Michael, Dr. Mayfair's new husband, to sink into a deep and dark depression - one that will be hard for him to escape. That changes for Michael when he meets young Mona Mayfair, who seduces him and coaxes him out of his depression. Because of this, seduction is a powerful theme in the novel. It is because of the characters being seduced that important events happen in the novel.
Meanwhile, Lasher tries to get Dr. Mayfair pregnant so that he can enact his evil plan. He fails a number of times, but ultimately succeeds - but not before Dr. Mayfair discovers through DNA that Lasher is not human (and is Taltos). Dr. Mayfair escapes, and Lasher and Michael ultimately go head-to-head, resulting in Lasher's death.
Ultimately, Lasher is meant to entertain readers. It is not a work of any substantial literary importance (as the reviewers of the novel readily pointed out when it was published). All of the novels in The Witching Hour are certainly thematically rich and diverse books (including inbreeding, the patriarchy, Christianity, and the power of the blood), but Rice first and foremost set out to write an entertaining novel above all. Speaking about the ethos of how she writes her novels, and why she wrote Lasher, Rice said in an interview that "Pedestrian, realistic novelists can get bitter and angry that they are outsold by the entertainers."
In writing Lasher, Anne Rice drew upon a number of things, including her faith (she found Christianity in the 1980s or 1990s after being raised in an "obsessively" Catholic family), as well as her varied life experiences, her eclectic interests, and other popular culture.
