The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Hendrix, Grady. Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Quirk Books, 2020. Kindle.

The novel begins with an omniscient narrator who tells us that the story begins with the bloody childbirth of five little girls who grow up to be housewives in the wealthy Old Village of South Carolina. Their story, the narrator says, will also end in blood.

After the prologue, the definition of the word “housewife” is presented, and then the first section, “Cry The Beloved Country,” begins. The section is labeled “November 1988.” All of the sections in the book are titled with the name of the selection the book club is reading in that particular month. The novel switches from an omniscient to a close-third on Patricia Campbell, the main character.

The first book was selected by Marjorie Fretwell, a socialite who was determined to read the great works of literature, hand-selected by her. Patricia joined the book club because she was bored at home alone all day. She used to be nurse before marrying Carter and having children with him, and she missed the excitement of the hospital. She did not have enough time to read the book of the month because Carter’s mother, Miss Mary, had just moved in with them because of her dementia. Patricia was terrified of making a fool of herself in front of all the other women because she was scheduled to lead a talk on the book. However, when Marjorie realized that Patricia had not read the book at all, she asked the other women to chime in, and it turned out that none of the women had read the book. The book club broke up and Patricia left to go home, but a woman named Kitty invited her over the next month to read a true crime book with a few of the other women. Patricia was reluctant, but once she started reading true crime, she realized she loved in. She became close friends with Kitty, Grace, Slick, and Maryellen.

The next section is dated May of 1993 and is titled “Helter Skelter.” Patricia got pearl earrings from Carter for her birthday and showed them off to her friends at book club. When she got home, she went out to the ally to take the garbage out and was attacked by an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Savage, who bit Patricia’s ear off. Carter came home and took both of them to the hospital. Mrs. Savage died from a rare type of blood poisoning a few days later. Patricia’s was distraught because she had lost one of her new earrings, but Carter told her it was just costume jewelry he had gotten for free from a patient. Patricia went to see the mysterious nephew of Mrs. Savage to find out more information. When she got to his aunt’s house, Patricia let herself in and found him dead in his bed. She attempted to give him CPR, but he woke up. Horribly ashamed, she ran out of the house and saw his cleaning woman, Francine, go inside. James came to her house the next day and she apologized to him, then invited him to join book club. Miss. Mary started screaming at James and he left. The next day, Patricia went to see James and he explained to her that he had a rare disease that did not allow him to go in the sunlight.

The next section is dated June of 1993 and is titled “Bridges of Madison County.” Miss Mary continued to scream about James and accused him of being a man named Hoyt. An intruder appeared on Patricia’s roof and she had to call the police. In a moment of coherence, Miss Mary explained to Patricia that Hoyt had been in business with her father when she was a small child. Small children had started to turn up murdered, and Hoyt blamed the deaths on a Black teenager who had brain damage. A mob captured him and buried him alive in Miss Mary’s yard beneath a peach tree. Hoyt had left town soon after, and her father had killed himself.

The next section is dated July of 1993 and is titled “The Stranger Beside Me.” Miss Mary and her nurse, Mrs. Greene, were attacked by a mob of demented rats. Miss Mary died. After the funeral, Patricia went to see Mrs. Greene in Six Mile, a predominately Black community on the outskirts of town. Mrs. Greene explained that a white man in a van had been seen in the woods where several children had died. She gave Patricia the license plate of the van, and Patricia realized the van was James’ van. Patricia at first assumed that James was selling drugs to the kids of Six Mile, but then she found him in his van, biting a young girl, and she began to suspect he was a vampire. She went to her friends and told them everything, except the part about James being a vampire, and they all believed her.

The next section is dated August of 1993 and is titled “Psycho.” The women attempt to go to the police, but their husbands stop them because they are working on a housing development project in Six Mile with James. The husbands make their wives apologize to James for starting rumors. James accepts their apology and suggests he join book club permanently so they will realize they have nothing to fear from him. The women agree, but Patricia is devastated that no one believes her. She tries to kill herself by taking all of the Prozac that her husband gave her. When she wakes up in the hospital, he tells her he will take the children away from her if she does not decide to give up on her conspiracy theory.

The next section is dated October of 1996 and is titled “Clear and Present Danger.” Three years had passed and the women were all living peacefully with James, who had made all of their families extraordinarily wealthy. Patricia had been taking Prozac and pretending that everything was fine. Miss Mary’s ghost appeared one day and told Patricia that Mrs. Greene had a picture of James. Patricia went to see Mrs. Greene and she showed Patricia the photograph of James in 1928 looking exactly the same. They decided to break into James’ house and Patricia asked Slick for help, but Slick never showed up. Patricia went into the attic and found the body of Francine hidden in a suitcase. James came home early and Patricia hid in the attic for hours. Mrs. Greene lit James’ housing development on fire and called Kitty, who went to get Patricia out of the attic. Patricia showed her Francine’s body and then went home. Slick called Patricia and Patricia went over to discover that James had raped Slick because she had tried to blackmail him out of town.

The next section is dated November of 1996 and titled “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” Slick was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with an immune disease. Patricia discovered that James was biting her teenage daughter. James told Patricia that he loved her family and wanted to become her husband. Patricia met with her friends and told them everything. Grace left, but everyone else agreed to kill James. Patricia went to his house and allowed him to bite her. The other women broke in and knocked him down, paralyzed him, and dismantled his body. He never stopped moving or talking. Grace came and helped them clean up, then ordered them to have his body placed in her family’s personal crypt. Slick died in the hospital and they had her cremated so she would not turn into a vampire.

The final section is titled “In Cold Blood” and is dated February 1997. Patricia went to visit Slick in the cemetery and leave her a book and a glass of wine. She listened to James moving around through the walls of his crypt.

The novel ends with an epilogue in which a newsletter from Marjorie Fretwell sums up the 1999 book club’s year and tells them she is looking forward to the new millennium.