Vivian Shaw “Strange Practice” (Orbit, 2017)
Greta Helsing is just another young doctor in London. She’s
struggling to keep her small clinic open, while hustling to care for her
patients.
Oh yeah, her family name used to be Van Helsing (famous for
association with a certain vampire), and her patients are various members of
the supernatural community.
For some reason I kept thinking that this book was sent in
some modified Victorian age. Maybe that’s my automatic association when the
concepts London, vampires, and Van Helsing come into play. But whatever reason,
it’s not! It’s all contemporary, which actually adds to the sense of several
characters being a bit out of step with the times.
And it turns out that this is really more of a cozy British
mystery than anything else. It’s less Gothic scares and more vampires cooking
breakfast than I had expected. And what an enjoyable cozy story this is! While
the stakes are high enough, there is enough comradery and good cheer to make
this a very enjoyable Halloween read on a crap year.
I’m looking forward to more of Dr Greta’s story.
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