SOURCE: “The Queen of Darkness,” in Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 18, 1990, pp. 1, 8.

In the following review, Brown offers enthusiastic praise for The Witching Hour, which she hails as “[Rice's best novel yet.”]

The Witching Hour unfolds like a poisonous lotus blossom redolent with luxurious evil. Or so it would seem to a Medieval or “born-again” Christian. For those Christians and non-Christians not fearful of stories about unearthly powers, witches and secular resurrections, this novel will delight the senses.

Author Anne Rice uses her beloved New Orleans to good effect. Of all American cities, it is the least Puritan and the most resistant to English priggishness.

Michael Curry, the primary male character and an impoverished native of this delicious city, dies and is brought back to life by Rowan Mayfair, a woman of science who happens to have magical powers. However, the price of resurrection comes very high...