I finally got a chance to read one of Graham Masterton’s most recent novels, The 5th Witch, and I thought I’d share some thoughts about it! (In fact, there’s an even more recent novel, House of Bones, which I’m going to get ASAP.)
The tale begins with the bizarre deaths of 3 undercover police officers. While trying to gain incriminating evidence about one of the city’s crime bosses, they are burned to death in their car — but only after spitting up a stomach full of cockroaches each. Detective Dan Fisher quickly realizes that their deaths were no accident — and not even a natural death. Each of the three major crime bosses in Los Angeles now has a mysterious woman accompanying him, using sinister powers to further his goals. The city is plagued by unexplained and gruesome deaths, and the police themselves are subjugated under the power of the three witches — and a mysterious fourth witch who follows them (and what about ‘the 5th witch’?). Detective Fisher works to uncover the weaknesses of the four witches before he is killed, and must overcome not only his own ignorance on the subject but the skepticism of his colleagues.
The book is certainly enjoyable, and is very much a typical Masterton story: almost too typical, in that it contains what I consider to be some of Masterton’s weakest story aspects as well as his strongest. On the weaker side, there isn’t much attempt to make sympathetic or realistic characters. Detective Fisher doesn’t seem to have much of a personality beyond a tragic event in his past. The motivations of the crime lords, and the witches, seem rather cartoonish: they are evidently only motivated by power. It is never explained how the alliance between the witches and the crime lords came about in the first place, either.
If you get past the rather vacuous background of the story, it is a fast-paced, fun and gruesome ride. Masterton’s witches are not the stereotypical pointy-hat cackling broom-riding type that only exist for laughs, but devilish, incredibly powerful, utterly amoral and completely lacking restraint. Lots of ghastly spells are cast, and each of the witches comes from a different background and has a unique array of demonic tools at her disposal. Seeing what they can do is much of the fun of a tale like this.
What is it about witches that makes them so captivating as characters? My naive impression is that tales of witches arose from a fear of strong-willed, independent women. No doubt there’s more to the power of witch tales than this; I’ll return in a future post to explore such stories in more detail. In the meantime, I can suggest Masterton’s The 5th Witch is an entertaining, quick read, though not one of his best.
One final thing about the book bugged me: it has a bit of a ‘twist’ ending in the last few paragraphs. It may just be me, but I just didn’t understand it. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be humorous, mysterious, or horrifying.
Skulls in the Stars 
I didn’t understand the ending either. Maybe it’s supposed to leave you wondering. But I would have preferred a little more clarity.
Kathy: Me too. Some ambiguity is great at the end of a horror novel, but not if it just leaves you saying, “WTF?”
I did not understand the ending at all either, and I never understood why Dan Fisher did not get arrested for manslaughter for driving drunk which cause Gayle’s death WTF was up with that. He just walked away from that charge. and again, the ending was another WTF.
I too did not understand the ending???? I was trying real hard to even remember what color malkin was to begin with, not black i guess? Then i was thinking maybe black cats are the symbol of evil witches and annie is really bad and not good??
Does anyone really know what the ending means?
As far as I know, no! 🙂
Oh good! I thought it was just me. I am confused w/the ending. Previously white kitten is now black, her owner with weird eyes now but, happily cooking in her kitchen? WTF is right!
Masterton is usually pretty good about his endings, but this one definitely left me baffled. And it’s not like the novel was filled with mind-baffling twists and turns otherwise.
I too am not sure of the ending. What I sorta got from it was Annie defeated all of the witches, therefore she now is a powerful witch. Black cats usually belong to powerful witches (at least in most stories). The eye thing would possibly be caused by the “Evil” power she got from defeating those witches, thus turning her evil. Possible opening for a sequel? The book was good, it did keep me wanting to read, but I didn’t like how he ended it. This is my first time hearing of Graham Masterton…I will have to check out his other books.
He can be somewhat hit-or-miss with his novels, but I would definitely recommend two of them. The Manitou — his first — is an undeniable classic, and his early novel Tengu is one of the most horrifying and imaginative novels I’ve ever read.
I am one of the few Masterton fans who doesn’t think the first “Manitou” was all that great. I found it silly.
I recommend “The Hell Candidate”, “The Revenge of the Manitou” (the second in the “Manitou” series), “Manitou Blood” (at least 3/4 of it; after which it goes in a direction I didn’t like), “The Sphinx”, and “The Djinn” (featuring Harry Erskine from the “Manitou” series in a non-“Manitou” book).
Oh damn! I forgot to include “House of Bones”, which, along with “The Hell Candidate”, is one of my top two Masterton books!
I still need to read “House of Bones”! A couple of years ago, I did a post where I surveyed much of Masterton’s work; you might enjoy it! IMHO, “Tengu” is the best of Masterton’s novels — that one just blew me away!
Thanks for the recommendations. I will def look for Tengu. I liked 5th Witch for it’s detailed explanations of things and it’s graphicness on some parts, hehe.
If you enjoy brutal, graphic horror, Tengu is definitely worth reading!
If the “he he” is because you liked the graphic sex scene, then, believe me, that part in “The 5th Witch” was tame compared to Masterton’s graphic sex scenes in other novels. Try “The Hell Candidate”, which he wrote under the name “Thomas Luke”.
I thought it was, for the most part, an awesome novel but the ending was too rushed. And, yes, I too was confused by the last line, and was trying to figure out what I missed. (Had Malkin died in the prior scene? No, he went behind the couch!) I had to go all the way to the beginning to be reminded that Malkin had been a white cat. Not the best way to end the book, but still a really good read.
Yes, it seems that *everybody* was confused by the ending of the book!
I’m reading “Prey” now, and the next book that’s coming in the mail is “Famine”. I’ll get “Tengu” into the rotation, as well, since it’s so highly recommended. Let’s face it. Masterton is like pizza. When he’s good, he’s really good. And when he’s bad, he’s still pretty good.
I think I figured out the ending! I think
So I knew Malkin was white when I read the last part (about him being black now) and about Annie’s eyes being black.
Well I kept thinking that when they killed the last Rebecca Greensmith that they were missing one. I just went through my kindle and only counted 4 times when Rebecca Greensmith was killed/died. Which means there’s actually one left and Annie is actually Rebecca (the way Gayle said. Because it didn’t make sense to me that he would keep getting a warning about Annie and then nothing happened. Unless she really was Rebecca)
So that’s what I’m going with. It’s the only thing that makes the most sense to me
I am confused by your explanation, but I did read this book a long time ago. You think the witches *become* Rebecca Greensmith?
Maybe I need to read this again. I remember enjoying it until the attempt at a twist ending.
No, I think Annie is Rebecca Greensmith. The other witches were killed. But the ghost or apparition of Gayle kept telling what’s his face to be careful when interacting with Annie. And then at the end, Gayle told him that Annie was actually Rebecca Greensmith (that’s when he went down and tried to kill her).
Well, he realizes that Annie isn’t Rebecca and stops trying to kill her. The ghost then becomes a snake and they kill it off; claiming that Rebecca is finally dead because the snake was the final one (remember, Rebecca was split into 5 people way back when, so they’ve been trying to kill all 5 of her)
Well as I was reading it, I kept thinking about how I must have missed a time when Rebecca was killed, because I could only remember 4 times. When I looked it up, there are only 4 times when she was killed. So my theory is that Annie is actually Rebecca the way the ghost of Gayle kept telling him. It would explain why her eyes and Malkin went black at the end. Because their is a final Rebecca left.
Does that make more sense?
It’s hard for me to follow because I read this book way too long ago. Maybe I’ll re-read it some time.
I’m re-reading this novel and am almost done. This was a hell of a good read! I’m not up to the ending that baffled me the first time.
OK, it’s official. This is an awesome horror novel, except for the last two pages. This book begs for a sequel so that Masterton can dig deeper into Annie Conjure’s history, motivations, and plans. Was Dan manipulated by her throughout “The 5th Witch”? It’s still not clear at the end. Give us a sequel!