Grave Importance, Vivian Shaw
Grave Importance, Vivian Shaw
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

Grave Importance

Author: Vivian Shaw

Narrator: Suzannah Hampton

Unabridged: 11 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 09/24/2019

Synopsis

A charmingly witty fantasy adventure starring Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, who must solve a dangerous medical mystery at a secret French spa for mummies.

Oasis Natrun: a private, exclusive, highly secret luxury health spa for mummies, high in the hills above Marseille, equipped with the very latest in therapeutic innovations both magical and medical. To Dr. Greta Helsing, London's de facto mummy specialist, it sounds like paradise. But when Greta is invited to spend four months there as the interim clinical director, it isn't long before she finds herself faced with a medical mystery that will take all her diagnostic skills to solve.

A peculiar complaint is spreading among her mummy patients, one she's never seen before. With help from her friends and colleagues -- including Dr. Faust (yes, that Dr. Faust), a sleepy scribe-god, witches, demons, a British Museum curator, and the inimitable vampyre Sir Francis Varney -- Greta must put a stop to this mysterious illness before anybody else crumbles to irreparable dust...

...and before the fabric of reality itself can undergo any more structural damage.

Praise for the Dr. Greta Helsing Novels:

"An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October."―Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author

"Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother's Dracula or demons."―Shelf Awareness

Dr. Greta Helsing Novels
Strange Practice 
Dreadful Company
Grave Importance

About Vivian Shaw

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer on September 29, 2019

I felt...meh about this one. For some reason, the purple prose annoyed me this time and the descriptions of Greta going about her day felt rote and tired. I waited for this book to come out because I loved the first two so much and I hate that I didn’t love it as much as I expected I would.......more

Goodreads review by Paulina Rae on March 31, 2024

Somehow the best book to finish on this Easter Sunday????????? Forgiveness???? Love??????? The concept of prayer??????????????? Crying in the club. Also, mummy TB treatments, commentary on demonic allergies, and angelic triage and trauma surgery in a hospital in Hell. I was a kid in a candy shop. Su......more

Goodreads review by Lena on October 03, 2019

Well... that was messy. I have enjoyed the urban gothic monster vibe of the series but this episode was celestial and cartoonish. I had been hoping for more Alceste St. Germain and got an insufferable amount of Grisaille. Hopefully this was a hiccup and this series is not a failing vector. Sigh, at lea......more

Goodreads review by Kristin B. on December 20, 2019

This third installment in the Dr. Greta Helsing series was more cohesive than the second. It did however still suffer from some technical issues. I’ll start with the not so great: Plot: A lot all over the place. We go from some issues with a few mummies, to angels from an alternate universe that some......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on May 23, 2020

I just love the kindness and fun and compassion in this series, along with the repeated emphases on redemption and found families. A couple of small details in the climax of the book didn't quite work for me, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the story as a whole, all the mummies wer......more

Quotes

"Shaw's characters, both human and supernatural (ghouls, witches, screaming skulls, oh my!), are genuinely fascinating, and her prose is just as droll and witty as ever, but it's Greta, with her big heart and determination to do the right thing, that makes this series sparkle. Readers will be happy to be pulled along in Greta's bustling wake.... A delightfully gothic contemporary urban fantasy series. "—Kirkus

"Intelligent prose and an intriguing cast of characters enhance the range of story lines, culminating in a breathtaking climax. Shaw's third "Dr. Greta Helsing" novel (after Dreadful Company) blends medical mystery and fantasy adventure to wrap up a delightfully modern undead trilogy."—Library Journal

"In Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice, a charmingly unusual doctor and her charges keep the city of London from grave danger. In the process, they peel back the covers of familiar (and according to them, somewhat "libelous") stories to find that reality - especially with the undead - is more poignant and complex than it seems at first glance. An excellent adventure."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Fran Wilde, award-winning author of Updraft, Cloudbound, and Horizon, on Strange Practice

"Strange Practice is written with elegance, wit, and compassion. The prose is gorgeous, the wit is mordant, and the ideas are provocative. Also, there are ghouls."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Laura Amy Schlitz, Newbery Medal winner, on Strange Practice

"A satisfying and surprising read, with rich imagery, nuance, and real compassion for its characters--give Strange Practice a shot!"—Elliott James, author of Charming, on Strange Practice

"A darkly delicious adventure featuring a quirky new heroine. Strange Practice breathes new life into the undead."—James Bennett, author of Chasing Embers, on Strange Practice

"An exceptional and delightful debut, in the tradition of Good Omens and A Night in the Lonesome October."—Elizabeth Bear, Hugo-award winning author, on Strange Practice

"Shaw balances an agile mystery with a pitch-perfect, droll narrative and cast of lovable misfit characters. These are not your mother's Dracula or demons ... Strange Practice is a super(natural) read."—Shelf Awareness on Strange Practice

"An appropriately dark breath of fresh air."—Booklist on Strange Practice

"Readers will look forward to more of Greta's adventures. An imaginative, delightfully droll debut."—Kirkus on Strange Practice

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