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 Detective Clive Perry: detective for RPIT Malcolm: master vampire, leader of the Church of Eternal Life Willie McCoy: a relatively new 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 with cave knowledge Lillian: a wererat with medical skills and knowledge Mrs. Pringle: Anita's friendly neighbor

Character Deaths

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 licensed 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 of the wearer.
• When talking to Catherine, Anita says that '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.
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Explanation of the Title

Information on this Page has been Gathered from the Following Sources

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

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