Are all vampires assholes? My favorite ones are, butnot everyone shares my weakness for shameless nasties. The world of vampire fictionis full of sympatheticcharacters who demonstrate their moral fortitude in a variety of ways: usually by endeavoring not to kill humans (Twilight), or resolving to kill criminals only (The Vampire Lestat).

So let’s talk vampires. Let’s talk about vampire ethics; or, the basiccriminality of vampires and how writers deal with it. And let’s be frank: This is really...