Strange Practice

Vivian Shaw

Jul 2017 · Sold by Orbit

About this ebook

The first book in a delightfully witty fantasy series in which Dr. Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, must defend London from both supernatural ailments and a bloodthirsty cult.

Greta Helsing inherited her family's highly specialized and highly peculiar medical practice. In her consulting rooms, Dr. Helsing treats the undead for a host of ills: vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. Although she barely makes ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta's been groomed for since childhood.

Until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice and her life.

Praise for the Dr. Greta Helsing Novels:

"An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October."―Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author

"Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother's Dracula or demons."―Shelf Awareness

Dr. Greta Helsing Novels
Strange Practice 
Dreadful Company
Grave Importance

Ratings and reviews

The characters are basically cyphers - the doctor is overworked, the antiquarian is weedy, the vampires are suave or brooding respectively. There is no development of genre fiction here, you've met all these people before and the plot only makes sense because you're familiar with them from other settings. The author knows very little about medicine - so if you're hoping for speculative insight into ghoul biology, you will be very disappointed. It feels as if the physician character is immediately suborned by other characters' narratives, precisely because the author has no idea how to handle her dialogue. Not only is the protagonist not our main character, but the villain of the work appears to be a misunderstood piece of electrical equipment. There are precisely no stakes to the conflict. This is boring, and a waste of your time.

You can really understand the challenges of each character. The main cast of characters are endearing and very witty. This is a wonderful read.

Loved the premis of a doctor for monsters living amongst humans and the solid sleuthing. Good plot and a great world. Very enjoyable read.

About the author

Vivian Shaw wears way too many earrings and likes edged weapons and expensive ink. She was born in Kenya and has lived in Cardiff, Oxford, and Baltimore. She has a BA in art history, an MFA in creative writing and publishing arts, and currently works as a professional freelance editor and proofreader. She writes about monsters, both in and out of classic horror literature; machines, extant and fantastical; disasters and their causes; and found family. She is the author of the Dr. Greta Helsing contemporary fantasy trilogy, Strange Practice, Dreadful Company, and Grave Importance. Her short fiction/horror fiction has appeared in Uncanny and Pseudopod.