Suzanne Mayfair is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in several novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s by Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...

, namely The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour (novel)

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice is the first novel in her series "Lives of the Mayfair Witches." The novel begins the tale of a family of witches, and a spirit that has guided their fortunes for generations.-Plot summary:...

, Lasher

Lasher

Lasher by Anne Rice is the second novel in her series Lives of the Mayfair Witches.-Plot summary:The novel begins shortly after the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Rowan Mayfair, who only recently was married to contractor Michael Curry...

, and Taltos, as an ancestor of the main characters, the Mayfair Witches of Garden District

Garden District, New Orleans

The Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: St. Charles Avenue to the north, 1st Street to the east, Magazine Street to the south and Toledano Street to the...

, New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

.

Her story begins and ends tragically in Donnelaith, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, where she is a village healer. In the presence of her daughter, Deborah

Deborah Mayfair

Deborah Mayfair is a fictional character appearing in several novels by Anne Rice, including The Witching Hour, being the ancestor of the famous Mayfair Witches of Garden District, New Orleans, Louisiana....

, she calls up a spirit named Lasher. He attaches himself to Suzanne, serving her and seducing her. Suzanne is described by her descendants as being a "simple girl", or an unintelligent woman, and they say that she really didn't know what she was doing when she was calling up this spirit that would haunt her family for centuries. She is blamed for some bad luck around the village that is undoubtedly caused by Lasher, and burned at the stake. Her daughter is saved from this fate by the fact that she is what was called a "merry-begot"; that is, she was conceived on May Day, and may in fact be the illegitimate offspring of the Earl of Donnelaith. She is taken away by a Dutch scholar named Petyr van Abel, a member of an order known as the Talamasca

Talamasca Caste

The Talamasca Caste is a fictional secret society described in the works of Anne Rice.- Background :The Talamasca Caste is described as a secret society set up to watch over and keep track of the paranormal, in particular, witches, spirits, werewolves and vampires...

that is dedicated to studying all things supernatural.