Vivian Shaw – Cannonball Read 17

Coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine

Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw

June 22, 2025 by NatalieH Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in my review, I really enjoyed Vivian Shaw’s Strange Practice, the first in a series of novels following Dr. Greta Helsing, a physician to the undead. I flew through it so quickly that I pretty much immediately went out and bought the rest of the series, the second of which is Dreadful Company. This installment sees Greta leaving London and visiting Paris for a medical conference, accompanied by her vampiric friend Lord Edmund Ruthven. Greta comes to the attention of a previous […]

People are strange, when you’re a stranger

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

June 21, 2025 by NatalieH Leave a Comment

The first book in Vivian Shaw’s Dr. Greta Helsing series, Strange Practice, was released in 2017. I’m somewhat surprised that it’s managed to fly under my radar for so long (seriously, how had I never even heard of these books before?), as pretty much immediately after reading the blurb on the back of the book I decided that this was something I wanted to read. Dr. Greta Helsing (a descendant of the famous vampire slayer, the family dropped the ‘Van’ part of the name at […]

Heaven Goes to War with Heaven and Mummies try not to fall apart

Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw

April 3, 2021 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I’d kind of been putting off reading Grave Importance because it’s the conclusion of a series I’ve enjoyed. This was a good ending to the series, and I’m sad it’s over, but at the same time there are a few things I wish had gotten a little more attention. The basic story has two lines that of course merge part way through; first there’s Greta’s in which she takes over a really fancy mummy clinic for a friend for a few months and naturally discovers […]

Me and my pagan crew

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

September 7, 2020 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo: Fresh Start I chose Strange Practice for my Fresh Start square because I was really intrigued by the premise. Unfortunately, it ended up being kind of disappointing and I probably won’t continue the series. Strange Practice is the first Dr. Greta Helsing book, a mystery series that focuses on a London doctor whose patients are all supernatural. Dr. Helsing treats demons with chronic coughs, injured ghouls, arthritic barrow-wights, and any other supernatural creature you could think of. As the story opens there’s a […]

Dreadful in name only

Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw

June 22, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Yay for new kinda favorite series! The thing for me that distinguishes a favorite from something enjoyable is how re-readable a book is. While I was waiting for the second book to get to my mailbox, I reread the first, and it was as much fun as the first time. After reading Dreadful Company (book 2), I started rereading it about a week later. Still fun. Dreadful Company features many of the same characters from the first novel including Dr. Greta Helsing, physician to things […]

Finally a break in a streak of not great

strange practice by vivian shaw

May 19, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader 1 Comment

Yeah for finding a new fun series! It’s fairly light, not perfect but quite promising. The basic premise is that Dr. Greta Helsing (daughter of that Helsing; yes, the one you’re probably thinking of) is a doctor for things that go bump in the night, like ghouls, vampires, vampyres, mummies, etc. She’s friends with Edmund Ruthven (yes, that Lord Ruthven), and as a result of a bad thing going on in the monster community, gets together a group including Ruthven, Francis Varney (a vampyr which […]

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