Imagine having a business card that says, "Animator and Professional Vampire Executioner"

Welcome to the world of Anita Blake. Set in a modern day St. Louis very similar to our own, Anita deals with a supernatural element we don't. She raises zombies for a living. (Mind you, this has only become a respected profession in the last 5 years or so. Before it was "an embarrassing curse, a religious experience, or a tourist attraction.") She also deals with the police, murder, ghouls, vampires, and were-creatures. All in a day's work for our intrepid Animator.

Anita works on retainer for the local police department's Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT or "the spook squad", depending on who you ask). She's their supernatural "expert" and they call her when they can't figure out who, or what, is causing trouble.

In "Guilty Pleasures", someone is murdering vampires. (Yes, you can "murder" the undead. They have rights too.) Anita gets called in to help figure out exactly what kind of creature is capable of killing a super strong, super fast, and gifted-with-other-powers vampire.

However, apparently she's not working fast enough. The 1000 year-old Master of the City, Nikolaos, threatens the life of one of Anita's few friends as an added incentive. Not a way to get on Anita's good side, mind you, and you really don't want to be on her bad side. She has 14 perfectly-legal vampire kills to her credit, earning her the nickname "The Executioner" amongst the vampire community. She sometimes works with a bounty hunter who specializes in supernatural beings, and they just call him "Death".

But the nice thing about Anita is that she's not Superman. She jogs, lifts weights, studies judo and practices a LOT to be able to defend herself if need be. Somehow she needs to defend herself a lot. In the course of this investigation she will defend herself (and her friends) against vampires, ghouls, humans, fellow animators and were-rats. It's really not healthy to be Anita's friend.

I don't want to give away the plot or the mystery, but in this one book you will meet: Guilty Pleasures (a vampire strip club), Jean-Claude (a vampire lust object who can actually pull off ruffled shirts), The Church of Eternal Life (since it's run by vampires, they can actually grant you eternal life), Edward the bounty hunter (called "Death" by the vampires), Nikolaos the 1000 year-old Master of St. Louis, Brouchard (her 600 year-old human servant), Raul (the King of the were-rats), Freak parties (for humans who enjoy donating their blood to vampires) and many other characters. This is a side of St. Louis I guarantee you've never seen!

While touted as "a heady mix of romance and horror", I really think "Guilty Pleasures" is a horror novel. There's a mystery to solve, and hurdles to overcome even once you figure out who the murderer is. There's blood and violence, but I think that is well balanced with a mix of interesting characters. The vampires are not all stereotypical (although a few are), and The Executioner has a soft spot for stuffed penguins. The story moves along and I found it easy to follow. I classify this book as a "fun, easy read". I know several guys who've read this novel and since become HUGE fans of Laurell K. Hamilton, so don't let the "horror romance" title deprive you of a good time.