A book by John Steakley (the original title is "Vampire$", but the newer editions come with "Vampires" on the cover), first published in 1992.

The book describes a group of vampire-hunters set up by the catholic church, but not the fancy Buffy "hit 'em, impale 'em" style that is used so often. Steakleys vampires are very hard to kill, supernaturally strong (strong enough to stop a sturdy offroad vehicle dead), highly intelligent and almost immortal at night. So the arsenal of the hunters consists of crossbows, high-tech plastic chainmail with cross-shaped halogen spotlights and silver bullets, none of which can instantly kill or even permanently hurt a vampire. Oh, yes, of course there's C-4 if the vampires refuse to leave a building.

The tactic of harpooning the vampires and dragging them into sunlight was picked up in John Carpenter's Vampires in 1998 as were some of the main story elements. I can recommend the book over the movie because it has some real character background and development and isn't completely based on splatter-action.

Did I mention that this book is not meant for kids?

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