Publisher's Blurb:

"My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me "The Executioner". What I call them isn't repeatable.


Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I've seen their victims. I carry the scars...

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires—and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer... " *1

"In a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States, Anita Blake is an "animator" - a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives. But Anita is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she's often employed to investigate cases that are far too much for conventional police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters of her hometown of St Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself - the source of her unusual strength and power."

Original Publication Date:

Paperback - October 1993 (Ace edition), October 2002 (Jove edition)
Hardcover - September 2002

ISBN:

0-441-30483-4 (Ace edition), 0-515-13449-X Jove PB edition, 0-425-18756-X (HC)

Covers and Cover Art:

The above cover was from the 2002 paperback republication of the book. The artist is: Craig White. Additional cover designs for North America and the UK can be seen here.

Synopsis:

For a more detailed Summary, see here

Primary Characters:

Anita Blake: a preternatural expert/consultant, an animator, and a vampire executioner
Jean-Claude: a very sexy master vampire
Edward: a cold blooded killer for hire, specializing in 'monsters'
Nikolaos: a very old, very powerful, and very threatening vampire.

Introducing Recurring Characters:

Bert Vaughn: Anita's boss
Craig: the nighttime secretary at Animators Inc
Mary: the daytime secretary at Animators Inc.
Jamison Clarke: an animator at Animators Inc.
Ronny (Veronica) Sims: Anita's best friend, also a private investigator
Dolph (Dolf, Rudolf Storr): Sergeant, Leader of RPIT
Zerbrowski: detective for RPIT
Det. Clive Perry: detective for RPIT
Malcolm: leader of the Church of Eternal Life
Willie McCoy: a vampire flunky
Dead Dave: a former cop, now a vampire, owns a bar
Luther: bartender at Dead Dave's
Buzz: a bouncer at Guilty Pleasures
Irving Griswold: a werewolf who is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rafael: the King of St. Louis wererats
Louie Fane: a wererat
Lillian: a wererat with medical skills and knowledge
Mrs. Pringle: Anita's friendly neighbor

Non-recurring Characters:

Burchard: Nikolaos's human servant.
Phillip: a "vampire junkie" and a stripper at Guilty Pleasures.
Winter: a human employee of Nikolaos.
Zachary: an animator working for Nikolaos
Theresa: a vampire
Valentine: a master vampire that Anita has encountered in the past
Aubrey: a vampire
Beverly Chin: a human that Anita rescued several years ago, now a member of HAV (Humans Against Vampires)

Character Deaths:

Theresa: killed by Zachary, ritual
Philip: killed by Aubrey and Valentine, torture
Winter: killed by Anita, knife
Valentine: killed by Anita, injection and shotgun
Unnamed vampire: killed by Anita, injection
Aubrey : killed by Anita , shotgun
Lucas : killed by Zachary, ritual, the only vampire killed with a witness.
Unnamed man : killed by Zachary, unknows cause of death- is later brought back to life as a zombie and then broken.
Burchard: killed by Anita, knife
Nikolaos: killed by Anita, sword
Zachary: killed by Anita, human blood

Important Revelations:

• This book takes place in the heat of the summer, July.
• Anita works as a consultant for the police on preternatural related crimes. She is on a retainer for RPIT. She is a registered animator and a licenced Vampire Executioner.
• At this point, when GP begins, Animators Inc. has been in operation for four years. It has a number of employees. Because much of the work is done 'outside' of the office, the animators share office space.
• Silver bullets or knives won't kill a vampire, but it will discourage them. Wounds made with silver heal almost humanly slow.
• Vampires, when they have recently fed, appear flushed and healthy.
• Prior to this book, Jean-Claude and Anita had encountered one another several times through her capacity as a police consultant.
• To be effective against a vampire, a cross or other holy item must be blessed and be backed up by true faith.
• When talking to Catherine, Anita says the 'Guilty Pleasures' is the world's ONLY vampire strip club.
• It is one of the hottest clubs in the district and does not take reservations.
• Anita's best friend Ronnie Sims is a private detective, and is on retainer for Animators Inc. They have known each other for three years at this point.
• At the beginning of GP, Anita has 14 Vampire executions/kills to her credit. She has staked the majority of these. Manny Rodriguez was her teacher and mentor.
• Even at this early stage, Anita has some resistance to vampires. She attributes this to her animation powers/skills.
• Jean-Claude recommended Anita to Nikolaos to solve the vampire murders. Ten vampires have been killed, two of which were more powerful than Jean-Claude. The police are only aware of four of these. An eleventh occurs during the book: Theresa.
• Willie was punished by Nikolaos when he could not persuade Anita to take the job when he visited her in her office. He is also punished when he tries to tell Anita that Nikolaos has taken Phillip.
• Anita learns that the daytime resting place of the most powerful vampires in St. Louis is under the Circus of the Damned.
• It was Valentine that was responsible for the mound of scars at Anita's neck around her collarbone and at her left elbow. She still has a valid writ of execution for him, as they do not expire and his was not revoked.
• The first vampire mark imparts some of the vampire's inner strength and power onto the human. It makes them harder to hurt, harder to kill. It also imparts an immunity to that vampire's voice, glance and mind. This gives Anita an even better resistance to being enthralled.
• Jean-Claude gives Anita the first mark when Aubrey seriously injures her and he fears for her life.
• The second mark forges a mental link between the vampire and the human and they can communicate through dreams. The second mark also allows the vampire to gain sustenance through the human when it cannot feed.
• Fearing for his own life, Jean-Claude gives the second mark to Anita when he is battling Nikolaos's anger.
• Anita is ravenously hungry for the remainder of the book. We learn in later books how unusual this is as she often forgets to eat.
• The fourth mark imparts near immortality to the human. Their lifespan is tied to the vampire who marked them.
• The vampire marks are used to make/bind human servants. It is considered a great gift by the vampires and is normally only given to humans who have shown great dedication and loyalty. Theresa says "A human servant, never bitten, never hurt, normally a gift given to those who have proven themselves invaluable."
• Only a Master vampire can 'make' a human servant.
• It is in this book that Anita first meets the Wererats and makes an agreement with Rafael, their King. She also meets Louie and Lillian.
• The full animal form of the wererat appears to be the size of a large German Shepherd. The incisors are 5 inches long and look like blunt daggers. They have dark, black, button eyes. The color of the fur can vary.
• Anita also saw the half rat form. Man-sized with narrow rat-like face, legs half bent, a long naked tale and clawed hands. The voice is thick with an edge of a whine as if the rat's mouth was not quite suited for talking. They have elongated feet and a long pink tongue.
• Possible YAABI? There seems to be a heck of a lot more stairs leaving the underground lair of Nikolaos in this book than there ever does in any of the following books.
• Vampire bodies don't always react to true death in the same way that human bodies do. They may not go through rigor mortis; this can make it difficult to determine a 'time-of-death'.
• The Church of Eternal Life, the vampire church, has a very fast growing congregation. Malcolm is its leader.
• We learn that Nikolaos fears Jean-Claude as a rival and wishes to discredit/break him and discourage his followers. She plans to use Phillip as an object lesson to the others of the Kiss.

Explanation of the Title:

Within the novel, "Guilty Pleasures" is the name of a vampire strip club operated by Jean-Claude, one of the main characters. It is located down in 'the District'. It is very popular and does not take reservations. Outside there is a large red neon sign that washes everything with the color of blood.

Information on this Page has been Gathered from the Following Sources:

1. LKH at Penguin Putnum Publishing
2. Guilty Pleasures on Wikipedia
3. The novel: Guilty Pleasures.

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