The 5th Witch

by Graham Masterton

How do you fight criminals who aren’t human? opposes it suffers a horrible death… but not at human hands.

Bizarre accidents, sudden illnesses, inexplicable and gruesome deaths: the mobsters will stop at nothing to eliminate their enemies. Every bloody step of the way, their companions are four mysterious women, witches who wield more power than the gangsters could ever dream of.

With the help of his mysteriously gifted neighbour, Annie Conjure, Detective Dan Fisher must fight both the LAPD’s scepticism and this chilling new power. And at the heart of the nightmare lies the final puzzle, the secret of…

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Paranormal, Witches, Witchcraft, Horror Thriller, Supernatural

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless. After training as a newspaper reporter, Graham went on to edit the new British men's magazine Mayfair, where he encouraged William Burroughs to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys.

At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines.

Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern.

Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear.

He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts.

Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France.

He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun read by Masterton, this one verging on splatstick. Our main protagonist is a cop in L.A., with a neighbor buddy Annie who is into, lets say, an organic lifestyle. Three crime bosses in L.A. at the same time invited some witches to town to act as their enforcers. The Russian boss gets a Russian witch, the Haitian boss a voodoo queen, and the Columbian drug lord a Columbian witch; they shortly make their presence felt by immolating some cops setting up a bust on the Haitian, and things quickly go down hill for the L.A. police department.

Dan, our lead, is convinced that the new ladies are of a supernatural sort and this is soon confirmed by Annie, who is also something of a witch. The plan of the crime lords is to intimidate the mayor and police force to leave them alone; they are just businessmen after all! So, can Dan, along with his neighbor Annie stop the witches? Why is Dan being haunted by his dead wife? Masterton must of had fun writing this, and it is laced with some snarky humor and of course, some really grizzly scenes of mayhem. Good, grade B pulp fiction, but ultimately, nothing spectacular. Worth a read if you are a horror fan, but I probably would not seek it out especially. 3 witchy stars!

[James Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read another Masterton book which I had not yet been through, for the Halloween period. I probably did choose this one as it has 'witch' in the title, but it is not a regular tales of witches and black cats. This tale sees modern day urban American under threat as a group of mysterious and dealy witches work with the known lcoal mob leaders and organized crime lords.
After some sudden and unexplainable deaths of officers and detectives, one detective must learn the truth of the witches and how to stop them.
Well, like many Masterton books, it is a great easy read. He is often forgotten among other well-known horror authors unfairly. He may not be the most literary of horror authors, but he always has a great energy and flow to his books. This is an author who will always pull to right into a story from the first few pages, and you want to keep ready. Events unfold, and a good pace moves the story along.
This was a little unusual, with crime lords of L.A. working with powerful and dangerous witches. At times, like a crime thriller until the next grizzly scenes of death and murder by occult spells.
Another good Masterton read, a little different but still very satisfying for horror fans.

[denudatio_pulpae · Rating 2 out of 5]

W Los Angeles pojawiają się nowi gangsterzy, którzy za wszelką cenę chcą przejąć władzę nad miastem. Nie byłoby w tym nic nadzwyczajnego, gdyby nie towarzyszki owych dżentelmenów – trzy różne kobiety, które łączy jedno – są czarownicami. Ich działania prowadzą do serii bardzo dziwnych wypadków – dwóch policjantów pali się żywcem w samochodzie, cały oddział SWAT zmienia się w krwawą marmoladę, a komendant zaczyna wymiotować ropuchami. Do rozwiązania tej sprawy zostaje przydzielony detektyw Dan Fisher, który początkowo jest sceptycznie nastawiony do nadnaturalnego wyjaśnienia, im jednak bardziej zagłębia się w tę sprawę, tym bardziej skłania się ku uwierzeniu w magię.

Takie tam czytadło do pociągu, jakoś zmęczyłam. Nic szczególnie nowego ani ciekawego tutaj nie znalazłam. A zakończenie jest wybitnie niedopracowane. Idzie mniej więcej tak: wezwę teraz straszliwego demona, takiego najstraszliwszego na świecie, co jak się go już wezwie, to trudno go odesłać tam, skąd przybył. Pięć minut później, kiedy demon zrobił co trzeba: gdzie jest ten demon? A nie wiem, poszedł gdzieś.

POSZEDŁ GDZIEŚ! Ten super hiper przerażający demon, co to go miało się praktycznie nie dać odesłać do czeluści, z których wypełzł, po prostu sobie poszedł i nikt go już więcej nie widział. Wygodne, panie Masterton, wygodne. Tyle, że BEZ SENSU!
4/10

[Ravenskya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short Summary:
The three main mafia/gang lords of Los Angeles have suddenly found new girlfriends, and they aren't afraid to use them. They have apparently shipped in witches from across the globe who are willing to act as their personal magical bodyguards. Much to the dismay of the police, innocent bystanders and restaurant guests who now find themselves in extremely dangerous situations... like spontaneously combusting. It's up to one down and out cop and his "white witch" neighbor to figure out how to stop them.

This was a very fast read, I started and finished it in the Emergency Room waiting area before we even got to go back to the second holding tank. I read the back of the book to my husband and he laughed "Witches and gangsters, I can't imagine why THAT hasn't been done before." But ignoring his scoffing I plunged ahead anyway and from the start, this book was promising.

Crazy deaths right from the beginning, police baffled, powerful witches on the arms of gang lords... it sounds a bit off when said outloud, but it was going very well. I was drawn in, curious and eager to continue. The beginning is by far the very best part of this book, it's down hill from there but thankfully the slope is gradual. It isn't until you get to the last 50 pages that you realize that Masterton is running out of room to wrap this tale up, and unfortunately the ending feels like a real rush job. Still, the ending was okay, not great, but tolerable.

My biggest issue (which also seems to be a recurring theme in Masterton books... the few I have read at least) is the lack of time passing. Everything occurs in a flash, no one seems overly concerned other than the main characters and the resolution is disturbingly easy. I never found myself worried over our main characters because nothing they did seemed overly hard or stressful. There really weren't any nail biting moments or pages where you find yourself checking your armpits to see if the sweat has soaked through your shirt. I guess that's it... it doesn't evoke any emotion. If you're on a plane or have a long car ride this book will do nicely, but it won't change your world or turn you into a raving Masterton fan.

[Fred Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had trouble deciding between three stars or four stars for this one.

On the one hand, the book has an awesome plot, with some great, evil witches doing some really nasty stuff in creative ways, and you can try to predict what will happen, but the author may fool you (at least he fooled me).

However, for some reason, Masterton rushed the ending. It almost felt like he was anxious to get to the ending.

And it seems like a lot of readers are baffled by the last few lines. And when you have to skip around the book to figure out what the last few lines mean, it can kind of spoil your enjoyment.

********* SPOILER ALERT **************

Sorry, Graham, but I didn't spend the whole book remembering what color Annie's cat was.

*************************************

ADDENDUM (7/13/12): Looking back, I really enjoyed this book, despite the problem with the third act and the ending. I'm bumping it up to four stars.
ADDENDUM (12/24/16): I found that I forgot a lot about this book, but I remember enjoying it, so I'm going to re-read it soon.
ADDENDUM (1/17/17): I reread this novel, and it is still a great read. I didn't feel like the third act was so rushed this time. It is really only the last two pages that are messed up, but I think that could be fixed if Masterton would only write a sequel. This novel begs some questions. Who is Annie Conjure? What are her motivations?

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've mentioned similar thoughts before but Masterton is kind of underappreciated. Or maybe more accurately, he doesn't get mentioned or included in as many lists of horror authors as I would expect. He's written a significant number of books but somehow he still gets skipped over. Maybe it's just my library though as I don't have as many books by him as I would expect. THE 5TH WITCH is another strong book by him. Not great but still good and very much in the vein of a good '80s horror book.

The book starts incredibly strong and jumps straight into the action. A trio of witches have come to Los Angeles and teamed up with three different mob gangs. Immediately the witches make their presence known by killing detectives and civilians, by strong-arming the Chief of Police and by making Homicide Detective Dan Fisher spit up thirty dollars worth of quarters. As Detective Fisher gets pulled into the weird happenings, he's fortunate to have Annie, a good witch, as a downstairs neighbor. She convinces him of the reality of the magic and then helps him to thwart the trio of witches and the additional witch who is assisting the trio.

First the good. The characters were all interesting and enjoyable. I could picture the events as they happened and they made me cringe, smile and wince. The story moved quickly and kept me engaged. Several of the times that I stopped reading for the day was because I was too tired or I had to do something else. In other words, I didn't want to stop but had to. Now, not really the bad but the convenient. It struck me as a tad convenient that the main character needed a witch to help fight the evil witches and that he happened to live right upstairs from one. Sure, that's the nature of books like this but it was a tad convenient. The same was true that she had enough power to fight the witches. Yes, it was part of the suspension of disbelief for the book but it also struck me as a tad easy. I was hoping for a bit more confrontation for the final act of the book. Something a bit more dramatic. Masterton kept it within the reality of the book and there was even some mystery that wasn't resolved until the end but I was hoping for a tad more. Still, I wouldn't ding the book based on that. I was pulled into the book enough that I started creating my own storylines and ideas. That's got to be a good sign.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book full of twists and turns, highly recommend it :)

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite horror novels. I read it years ago, back in 2006. I need to refresh my memory by reading it again soon. I'll post a review after.

[Stiv_Matters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graham Masterton qualifies as one of my guilty pleasures. I've been reading his books since I was in junior high and read "The Manitou". When he's on his game, he can tell a good story with lots of gore and a real skill at describing a scene so it's very easy to picture in your mind. His weaknesses are shallow, two-dimensional characters and horrible dialogue but that's easy to overlook when he's spinning a good yarn. "The Fifth Witch" starts out with a great spontaneous combustion scene and a great premise, that the major crimelords in Los Angeles have allied themselves with a group of powerful witches and they fearlessly take over the city. There are lots of stock Masterton moments, one of the witches covers her face with her hands so that only her eyes show out just like Misquamacus, the vengeful indian from Masterton's most known work, "The Manitou". One of the witches attacks through mirrors much like a previous book, "Mirror". And the protagonist has nightmares about the death of his wife much like the protagonist from "The Pariah". In fact, as soon as the dead wife was mentioned, I knew she'd be back and she'd have sex with the protagonist. And she did. After a great start, the book quickly loses steam. The witches continue to escalate their outrageous acts against the people of Los Angeles and there are some great scenes of gore and devastation but the plot wanders and the sub-plot involving the dead wife is poorly developed. The protagonist is pretty much the same protagonist from every Masterton novel, the good witch downstairs is okay except that any time someone comes over she offers them a "brewski" which I found annoying. The buddy is a stereotypical mexican character who is obviously marked for death as soon as we meet him. At about the halfway point, it's clear where the story is going and that's exactly where Masterton takes it. Along the way, there are some cool monsters, the witches do hurt and kill people in interesting ways and lots and lots of gore. Nothing we haven't seen before in a Masterton story but well written. Much of this plays like Masterton's Greatest Hits and I think he lost interest about halfway through. The ending is contrived and predictable. Nevertheless, in the larger picture of the Masterton oeuvre, this one stands right in the middle. He's written a lot of books better than this one but he's certainly written worse. If you're a fan of Masterton, there are parts of this book that are classic Masterton moments and that makes up for a lot of the books weaknesses. If you're not a fan of Masterton, this isn't a good place to start.

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lot of fun mostly because Masterton doesn't hide the evil deeds of his witches. They do their black magic in broad daylight in front of crowds of people. There is no hiding from them, and there is no fighting them. Well, unless you have a witch of your own . . . Masterton also turns the gross-out volume up to eleven, especially in the library of the White Ghost's mansion. That's a scene that almost rivals the lawnmower scene in Dead Alive. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the ending seems too rushed. A lot happens in 50 pages. A lot of Leisure books have that problem, though, and I suspect it's a production issue, not the author's fault. This one is highly recommended.

[Miłośniczka Książek]

Los Angeles w wizji Grahama Mastertona pogrąża się w mroku, magii i chaosie. "Piąta czarownica" to historia, która łączy elementy kryminału, horroru i fantastyki – a jej odbiór może być różny w zależności od czytelnika.

Moje pełne wrażenia i recenzję znajdziecie na moim blogu i Instagramie [linki poniżej]. Tam dzielę się tym, co zwróciło moją uwagę i jak odebrałam tę książkę.

Zajrzyjcie i przekonajcie się sami, czy warto po nią sięgnąć.

blog - https://magicznyswiatksiazki.pl/recen...

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/DSFBNn7jab6/

[Chomiczusiek98 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jak zawsze lekki, przyjemny horror.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story was entertaining throughout, I did not like the way it ended. The overwhelming ambiguity with which it concluded made the whole thing seem cheap and I felt like I'd wasted my time reading it. A repeated theme with Masterton is the use of the mirror 'world' to unsettle the reader - and there were instances where it was right on target. There were other parts of the plot that were predictable and that didn't work as well - who couldn't tell that the ghostly visits were going to end badly.

I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters, but as usual in the fight between good and evil I was partial to the good side. The chanting and charms seemed real enough, and the action scenes gave the story momentum. There definitely was a building up to the climatic end and you could almost mark the points in the story where it transitioned. There were several secondary characters that were used in the plot to fulfill one specific purpose, so there is even less of a connection to them. It felt forced when one of these secondary characters was used to motivate the protagonist and escalated the story to its climax.

This is basically a throw away read, not something that's memorable. It's was a modern take on old fantasy fiction. If you have a couple hours to fill or are looking for something that's not too demanding then here a piece of pop-fiction for you!

[Carl Alves · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 5th Witch is a bit of a departure from some of Graham Masterton’s other work. It’s slick and stylish and highly engaging. The novel starts off with a group of crime czars attempting to take over Los Angeles with the aid of an ancient witch. She is aided by three other witches who support the crime lords in their quest to conquer the city. Standing opposed to them is Homicide detective Dan Fisher, and his neighbor Annie Conjure, who is a good witch. Dan is haunted by his wife who had died three years earlier. Dan faces a monumental challenge in taking on both the crime bosses and the witches.

This is a highly enjoyable, fast paced novel. Although it is ostensibly a horror novel, there are strong thriller elements to it as well. Graham Masterton weaves through both of these worlds with a high skill level. My only quibble was that Annie’s role in the story was telegraphed and pretty easy to see, so when the reveal came there was no real surprise to it. The story is well-plotted, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable. I highly recommend reading it.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off great with lots of gory details, but the story began right in the middle of a grand showdown between several policemen, a drug lord, and four witches, no gradual plot build-up here. Where did these witches come from? We do learn more about the witches as the story progresses, and we are later introduced to a 5th witch. I lost interest as I continued reading, however. The story didn't grab me. There were many brief appearances by irrelevant characters, slowing down the pace of the novel, although the pace did pick up in the end, closing with an interesting plot twist. Don't get me wrong, I liked this book, my first Graham Masterton. I will give him another try. Masterton, a supposed master of the horror genre and author of over forty novels, is bound to have written a book that I can rave about. The 5th Witch just wasn't it.

[Jeffrey Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warped! That's my one word review of the first Graham Masterton book I've ever read.

Amusing at times, too, although I don't think it meant to be. I chuckled at some of the outrageous scenes.

I also think it was amateurish in its writing, particularly toward the beginning. It felt like an unedited self-published book.

Masterton still knew how to paint some disgusting, stomach-turning death scenes. I think that's what kept me going until the end. I wondered how the next victim (s) would meet their end.

What an imagination Masteron has. Or is that the state of his mind?

[Edmund Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written horror novel from one of the masters. The diverse mythologies underlying each type of witchcraft are blended together well.

[Brandon Karcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fittingly, "The 5th Witch" is the fifth book I've read by Graham Masterton. I really like Masterton as a writer. He usually begins with a wholly improbable event, but then slowly unravels the mystery until you become a believer. While perhaps not based on real-life events, they are based on actual beliefs and practices of various peoples, be they Native Americans or Haitians, etc.

"The 5th Witch" is a combination retread of "Master of Lies" and "Night Warriors". Masterton's books all follow the same basic formula. The protagonist is a nonbeliever who witnesses a seemingly impossible event and is forced to become a believer but quick. He must then spend the first half of the book trying to convince others of what he believes and repeating the same story of said impossible event over and over again. This actually does take up the first half of the book and it leads to repetition of the same scene but with different characters scoffing and telling our hero that he or she needs psychiatric help, all while people are dying all around them in the most bizarre ways until all the people he's been trying to convince become believers, but usually only just moments before their grisly death.

The second half of the books are a little more interesting. Now that you, too, are a believer, Masterton can unshackle his typing hands and really do some fantastic things as he ratchets up the tension. The finales are usually rather inventive and make getting to the end of the books ultimately worth it. Masterton's style of writing is full of humor, truly grotesque scenes and some pretty explicit erotica (the author also writes sex manuals). His books are a joy to read, however repetitive they may be.

[Jackspear217 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Z książkami Grahama Mastertona bywa różnie. Jedne są lepsze, inne trochę mniej udane. „Piąta czarownica” należy jednak do tej pierwszej kategorii. To może nie jest arcydzieło, ale zapewnia porządną rozrywkę – taką na jedno dłuższe popołudnie. Przy tej książce naprawdę trudno się nudzić.

Wszystko za sprawą wartkiej akcji oraz motywów nie tylko tytułowej czarownicy, ale także odrobiny mitologii – czy, jeśli ktoś woli, demonologii – z czterech stron świata. Ciekawym, bardzo filmowym zabiegiem jest zestawienie zjawisk nadprzyrodzonych ze współczesnością.

Aż prosi się, by fabuła tej książki została przeniesiona na srebrny ekran. Los Angeles, gdzie rozgrywa się akcja, zna już podobne historie, ale jedna więcej na pewno by nie zaszkodziła.

Książka ma w sobie specyficzny klimat, który bardzo przypadł mi do gustu i sprawił, że naprawdę dobrze czuć atmosferę grozy unoszącą się nad Miastem Aniołów. Może zabrakło tu nieco większej dbałości o psychologię postaci, ale patrząc z innej strony – powieść byłaby wtedy zapewne dłuższa, co niekoniecznie wyszłoby jej na dobre.

Myślę, że to celowe działanie ze strony angielskiego pisarza. Po przeczytaniu kilku innych jego książek wiem już, czego się spodziewać i czemu służy jego pisarstwo. Dlatego „Piąta czarownica” nie zawodzi. Jest dokładnie tym, czym miała być.

To więcej niż OK lektura – a do tego pięknie wydana, więc cieszy nie tylko serce, ale i oko. Polecam!

Za egzemplarz dziękuję @wydawnictworeplika

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witches and crime bosses unite in a bid to hold the city of LA hostage. The city’s only hope in stopping this hostile takeover are a jaded LAPD detective and his obese partner, along with a neighbor who just may be a witch herself. Together the 3 of them must band together to stop the evil magic of the trio of witches and, hopefully, save the city of Angels from becoming a haven for drug kingpins and gangsters alike.

If you think the plot for The 5th Witch sounds crazy, you aren’t wrong. In fact, the story is outright insane. But this is Graham Masterton after all, an author who continues to prove his mettle with both the concept and eventual execution of truly bizarre ideas.

Somewhere between immolation, puking up live frogs, isolated hurricanes, mass blindness, attacks from mirror demons, actual demons, helpful ghosts, and magicians using slight of hand magic tricks, this book works and ends up being a ton of fun.

While this lacks the spook factor of The Pariah or the malignant and mean spirited feel of Charnel House or The Manitou, The 5th Witch is fast paced, creatively gory, and original, while still demonstrating the Masterton sarcasm and black humor we have all come to expect from his 40 plus year career as a novelist.

[Ruby Ridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion Graham Masterton is probably one of the most underrated horror writers there is, far lesser writers get underserved praise and awards whereas Graham Masterton just keeps rolling out great novels - like this one.
If you are a horror fan read this book, even though it is not one of his best it is still way above some of the other writers I could mention, and anything else you can get your hands on by this author, you will not regret it.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was entertaining and well-written enough to keep me engaged and I read it in 2 days. I think it would've benefited from being a tad longer because some parts seemed fairly rushed. After thinking about it though, the way the characters accepted certain things and changed their viewpoints was quite reasonable given the circumstances. As always, another enjoyable read by Masterton. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

[John Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mastertons worst. He's usually great but this was a struggle to finish with the same regurgitation stchick repeated ad boredom (as opposed to ad naseum).

[Mrs Lynsey Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Good page turning book but with a bit of a strange and sudden ending like there might be a book two one day

[Cassandra Glissadevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.1 stars!
Hard-boiled witch horror. Fast paced.

[Barbara Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started out a little slow but developed into a pretty good story with a surprise ending.

[Laurie D'ghent · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish the third chapter, it was so bloody and graphic. Definitely not my thing

[Patricia Taft · Rating 3 out of 5]

CHEESY WITH A STRANGE ENDING.

[Norla Chee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew it would end questionably!

[Mick Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun page turner by Mr Masterton. Total tosh of course but well worth your time