The stakes are high

 I'm quickly becoming enamored of Grady Hendrix's writing, since everything of his I've read has amused me. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is no exception, even if it does have an ugly reminder wound around some of the narrative.

We're in suburban Charleston, South Carolina, starting in the early 90's, with a 3 year time jump halfway through. We open on Patricia Campbell, a stay at home mom of two, who left her nursing career when she married her husband Carter the psychiatrist. When we start, she's joined a women's book club, focused on getting the members to read the classics. As it's her night to host and lead the discussion, Patricia is in trouble due to the fact she's made it all of maybe 2 pages into Cry, the Beloved Country. As it turns out, more than a few of the ladies had similar issues getting into it, much to the displeasure of the leader of the club. This does cause a schism, but a new, unnamed club forms among the ladies who didn't feel like reading about South Africa, but instead prefer reading far more interesting books about things like True Crime. 

As things go on, we meet first Miss Mary, Patricia's mother-in-law, who winds up moving in with Patricia de to her dementia and lack of siblings willing to care for her; Mrs Greene, an African-American lady who comes to help take care of Miss Mary; and new in the neighborhood, James Harris, the nephew of the neighborhood old battle ax. 

We first meet Mr. Harris not long after said battle ax shows up in Patricia's side yard eating trash and biting off Patricia's earlobe. We find he has a skin condition that won't let him stay long in sunlight, and he has a bunch of cash that Patricia helps him invest. We also find out Miss Mary thinks he's the same gent from her childhood who lead to the ruin of several men in her hometown selling rat spit whiskey.  

We also find out that children have started vanishing, committing suicide, etc from Six Mile, the area of town where Mrs. Greene lives. 

Eventually, this leads Patricia to believe that James is a drug dealer, and the ladies of the club go on under that assumption, which leads to their husbands shutting them down. Indeed, Carter puts Patricia on Prozac, which she eventually tries to commit suicide with. 

This leads to the three year time jump, as the nameless book club now includes James and the husbands, and the books have shifted to things like Tom Clancy. James has lead the men into investing in a new condo development in what was Six Mile, and encourages them to take on new roles for more money in their professional lives. (Carter winds up going into private practice and is now doing lectures and selling new psychiatric medications.) 

As time passes on, Patricia figures out (with help from the ghost of Miss Mary and some extra help from Mrs. Greene) that James isn't what he seems, and the book proceeds from there, as we try to figure out what the ladies are going to do about it. 

The book is equal parts humor (like when the unnamed book club has a debate on whether or not the male lead in The Bridges of Madison County is really a serial killer), social commentary (the ladies don't really care about the poor black kids problems, but do start caring when it happens in their back yard [the police are also guilty of this, although some of that is due to the men]), and horror (the title alone should give that away.) It also carries a moral about not messing with certain women who know how to get blood stains out of white carpet. 

A good vampire yarn with some intriguing twists.