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|title=Strange Practice: A Dr Greta Helsing Novel

|author=Vivian Shaw

|date=July 2017

|isbn=978-0356508870

}}

''I don't suppose it's worth trying to convince you it's too dangerous?''<br>

''Strange Practice'' surprises and delights. It's completely different from anything I've read before. It ticks so many boxes: action, mystery, suspense, an exciting and different world adjacent to our own to name but a few. But the greatest elements of the book are the characters. They shine. The personalities of Greta, Ruthven, Fastitocalon, Varney and Cranwell contrast superbly and leap off the pages – it really feels as if they're in the room with you. Their dialogue together is fantastic and will have you smiling and laughing. They form the most unlikely but brilliant team of a supernatural doctor, a vampire, a demon, a lunar sensitive, and a very ordinary human museum curator, which readers will love rooting for. Shaw puts her own spin on her supernatural characters, dispelling myths and creating new exciting (and very cool) powers.

The plot takes a backseat to character development but that's not to say it's isn't exciting. It keeps you guessing throughout, worrying and fretting about whether your beloved characters will survive. The pacing is also on the whole great but I personally found there were times when the writing could have been more engaging without the detailed descriptions which I didn't seem to be relevant to the plot.