Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Strange Practice
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
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NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017017645
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017017645
HEADING: Shaw, Vivian
000 00755cz a2200133n 450
001 10411676
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008 170328n| azannaabn |a aaa
010 __ |a n 2017017645
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
053 _0 |a PS3619.H39467
100 1_ |a Shaw, Vivian
500 0_ |a Coldhope
670 __ |a Strange practice, 2017: |b CIP t.p. (Vivian Shaw) data view (“Vivian Shaw was born in Kenya and spent her early childhood at home in England before relocating to the US at the age of seven. She has a BA in art history and an MFA in creative writing, and has worked in academic publishing and development while researching everything from the history of spaceflight to supernatural physiology. In her spare time, she writes fan fiction under the name of Coldhope”)
PERSONAL
Born in Kenya; immigrated to the United States.
EDUCATION:Holds B.A. and M.F.A. degrees.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist. Worked in academic publishing and development.
AVOCATIONS:Writing fan fiction.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Vivian Shaw is a Kenyan-born writer and novelist. She spent most of her early childhood in England before moving to the United States at the age of seven. In her professional life, she has worked in the field of academic publishing and development. She holds a B.A. in art history and an M.F.A. in creative writing.
In her debut novel, Strange Practice, Shaw introduces readers to Dr. Greta Helsing, a thirty-four-year-old physician in London with a highly specialized medical practice. Like her father before her, Greta treats the sick, the injured, and the infirm. She is not interested in the diseases and wounds that afflict mortals, however. Dr. Helsing is a physician for the supernatural creatures of the world. She provides medical services to vampires, werewolves, ghouls, mummies, and demons. If a mummy is falling apart, she can fashion a new bone to set a loose limb. If a vampire needs blood, she can secure a supply through connections at local blood banks. “She grew up with vampires in the sitting room and demons in the parlor, and being able to help them to live their best lives through her work at her small, private clinic is all she has ever wanted to do,” commented Jason Sheehan in a review on the National Public Radio website.
Greta is a descendant of probably the most famous person to bear her family name, Abraham Van Helsing, who struggled against the most famous of vampires, Dracula, in the late 1800s. Though her family dropped the “Van” years ago, Greta is fully aware of her close ties to history. Throughout the book, Shaw’s “affection for her characters is obvious, and Greta is a sensitive, genuinely nice person who loves her job, is unerringly discreet, and cares deeply about her patients, even ones that try to kill her.”
In this first adventure, Greta finds herself helping a famous member of the vampire clan, Sir Francis Varney, who has shown up seriously wounded at the home of Edmund Ruthven. Varney, who is well known to readers of Victorian-era penny dreadfuls but proves to be nothing like he was depicted in them, has been attacked by what appeared to be a group of monks, chanting in a strange language and spraying garlic. When Greta herself is attacked, her throat nearly slit by a man hiding in the back seat of her car, she realizes the stakes are high. Together, she and her monstrous friends, along with human ally August Cranswell from the British Museum, search for answers to the mystery to discover who has the strength and the nerve to attack members of the supernatural community.
Sheehan called Strange Practice a “warm quilt of a thing that’s made for curling up with.” A Publishers Weekly contributor found it to be an “appealing, amusing collection of London’s modern undead and the humans who care for them.” The book is an “appropriately dark breath of fresh air in the arena of urban fantasy,” remarked Booklist writer Dawn Kuczwara.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June, 2017, Dawn Kuczwara, review of Strange Practice, p. 72.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of Strange Practice.
Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2017, review of Strange Practice, p. 41.
ONLINE
National Public Radio Website, http://www.npr.org/ (July 26, 2017), Jason Sheehan, “Strange Practice: The Doctor Is In,” review of Strange Practice.
Print Marked Items
Shaw, Vivian: STRANGE PRACTICE
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Shaw, Vivian STRANGE PRACTICE Orbit (Adult Fiction) $14.99 7, 25 ISBN: 978-0-316-43460-7
Murderous monks run amok underneath London in this contemporary supernatural tale.Thirty-four-year-old
Dr. Greta Helsing has run a very specialized clinic for five years after taking over for her late father, Wilfert
Helsing: she treats the "differently alive" (aka vampires, ghouls, mummies, etc.) that roam in the shadows of
London, keeping to themselves and avoiding the public eye. When her good friend Edmund Ruthven, a 400-
year-old vampire, calls to tell her that Sir Francis Varney, a very famous vampire, showed up on his doorstep
gravely wounded, she can't get there fast enough. He has a cross-shaped stab wound that's making him very
ill, and he tells of an attack in his flat by a bunch of men (or are they?) dressed like monks, chanting strange
phrases. The garlic they drenched his home in added insult to injury. It's a strange story, but when Greta is
attacked in her own car by one of them, who tries to slit her throat no less, seeing is believing. She escapes
and gets the dagger after spraying her assailant with a heaping helping of pepper spray, hoping it will get
them closer to finding out what they're dealing with. Meanwhile, a vicious killer inevitably dubbed the
"Rosary Ripper" is stabbing people to death and leaving cheap plastic rosaries in their mouths. Could it be
the work of the rabid monks? Greta, Ruthven, Varney (who's having an existential crisis), along with old
friend of the family Fastitocalon (of still undetermined supernatural stock) and August Cranswell of the
British Museum, are keen to find out and stop the madness, and the killing, for good. Shaw's affection for
her characters is obvious, and Greta is a sensitive, genuinely nice person who loves her job, is unerringly
discreet, and cares deeply about her patients, even ones that try to kill her. She's always innovating new
methods of treatment, such as replacing the bones of a mummy's foot so entropy won't set in or treating
depression in a rat fur (with tails)-draped ghoul chieftain. Readers will look forward to more of Greta's
adventures. An imaginative, delightfully droll debut.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Shaw, Vivian: STRANGE PRACTICE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329331/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7f053985.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329331
Strange Practice
Dawn Kuczwara
Booklist.
113.19-20 (June 2017): p72.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Strange Practice. By Vivian Shaw. July 2017.400p. Orbit, paper, $14.99 (9780316434607).
The first novel in a projected trilogy is an appropriately dark breath of fresh air in the arena of urban fantasy.
The book centers on Dr. Greta Heising. Greta is a doctor, as was her father before her, but she doesn't work
to keep normal humans healthy. Instead, Greta's patients are ghouls, goblins, vampires, various other
supernatural creatures, and even a demon--an old family friend with a recurring cough. Greta, along with
her patients, are all trapped in a fog of fear as London is terrorized by a serial killer going after humans and
a cult of hyperreligious monks bent on eradicating unclean supernatural creatures from the world.
Throughout, we are teased along as to what is driving these mad monks to kill and how they might be
connected to the killings in the "normal" world, all presented through the use of elevated vocabulary. Greta
is a refreshing urban fantasy heroine, strong and smart and utterly normal, despite her chosen profession.
Readers who enjoy urban fantasy and are getting tired of cookie-cutter female protagonists will find this a
pleasant surprise. --Dawn Kuczwara
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kuczwara, Dawn. "Strange Practice." Booklist, June 2017, p. 72. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498582779/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2e064698.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582779
Strange Practice
Publishers Weekly.
264.18 (May 1, 2017): p41.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Strange Practice
Vivian Shaw. Orbit, $14.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-43460-7
In this comic supernatural mystery debut, Wright 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.
(July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Strange Practice." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 41. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575292/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=59b28471.
Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491575292