With the help of former Talamasca leader-turned-vampire David Talbot, Louis asks the beautiful witch Merrick Mayfair to use her spiritual powers to contact Claudia's ghost.

She reveals that from the beginning, she used her magic to lure David and Louis to her in hopes of receiving the Dark Gift of vampirism.

Some characters from Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy (1990–1994) appear in Merrick, and later Blackwood Farm (2002) and Blood Canticle (2003).

[9] Publishers Weekly wrote, "This volume merges several long-running plots; the first chapters sag with the weight of their exposition, and the prose seems overheated even for Rice ...

Displaying her imaginative talents for atmosphere and suspense, Rice creates a riveting scene that shows Merrick's awesome magic at work.