The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Grady Hendrix, an American writer, published the horror novel The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires in 2020. It is set in a South Carolina suburb in the 1990s and follows a women's book club that ends up dealing with a vampire.

Patricia Campbell's days go to her workaholic husband, her teenagers and her senile mother-in-law, and the one evening she keeps for herself is the book club, where a group of Charleston women meet to talk about true-crime books.

After an elderly neighbour attacks her, the neighbour's charming nephew, James Harris, arrives and makes himself useful around the neighbourhood. At the same time, children begin disappearing on the other side of town, and Patricia, used to talking about predators over wine, starts to suspect him.

The novel plays with the conventions of the suburban social story and the vampire story at once, and its horror comes as much from the question of who will believe Patricia as from what James may be. It is a standalone novel.