Strange Practice
A Dr Greta Helsing Novel
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- €3.99
Publisher Description
'This book is a joy to read, unlocking every bit of delicious promise in the premise' B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
Meet Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead.
After inheriting a highly specialised, and highly peculiar, medical practice, Dr Helsing spends her days treating London's undead for a host of ills: vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights and entropy in mummies. Although barely making ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta's dreamed of since childhood.
But when a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human undead and alike, Greta must use all her unusual skills to keep her supernatural clients - and the rest of London - safe.
'Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of loveable misfit characters'
Shelf Awareness
'An imaginative, delightfully droll debut'
Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this comic supernatural mystery debut, Shaw assembles an appealing, amusing collection of London's modern undead and the humans who care for them. Dr. Greta Helsing continues the family business of discreetly providing antibiotics to ghouls, bone replacements to mummies, and pints of blood recovered from medical facilities to vampires. She joins several supernatural entities and an archivist at the British Museum in stopping a group of homicidal monks with burned skin, glowing blue eyes, and antique weapons who are targeting both the supernatural population and humans they deem wicked. Shaw excels at depictions of long-lived characters who combine old-school aesthetics with an appreciation of modern conveniences; readers will be amused by ancient entities coopting modern technology. Her idea that immortals make friends with families of humans through several generations makes sense. But characters recapitulating old angst feel shallow and inauthentic, exposition is directed at no one in particular, and a devil-ex-machina ending devalues the work of the team. Shaw has plenty of room to both to continue developing the relationships inside the ensemble cast and add more quirky players in the planned sequel. This review has been corrected to accurately reflect the author's last name.
