Dr Greta Helsing :: A Trilogy

I groaned after I finished Vivian Shaw's 'Strange Practice' (2017). I only realized at that point that it's the first book of the 'Dr Greta Helsing' trilogy! This mean I'd have to read the other two books! Grrrrr. The good thing is, all three books have been published. There's no need to wait anymore. So I did.

This is such an unexpectedly delicious little urban supernatural fantasy series. It follows Dr Greta Helsing, a thirty-four year-old doctor to the undead, the demons, ghouls and spirits living in London, UK. It's a family business for her, and she truly loves what she does and believes in it. (Reviews here, here and here.)

The author borrowed from all known fairy tales and otherworldly myths and legends, and took liberty with the names of the characters. What fun. And she seems to have thing about going underground, underneath the cities — the old tunnels in London, the catacombs in Paris, in a mountainside at the caves in the South of France, and then the ultimate subterranean Hell.

'Strange Practice' (2017)

We're introduced to Greta's inner circle. There's Fass/or Fastitocalon, a demon who has sworn to protect her family and promised her father to watch over her. Then there's the suave >400-year-old vampire Lord Edmund Ruthven, and the human historian/museum curator whose family and its descendants he has sworn to protect, August Cranswell, and finally, vampyre Sir Francis Varney (yes, the Varney in Penny dreadfuls) who was co-opted into the circle. 

Together, the circle investigated a newly recruited inhuman cult killing humans and undead and demons alike, set about making it right and safe for humanity, fighting a manipulative being that's as old as creation, feeding on human anger, fear and cruelty. 

I love it when the writer has the circle coming together over a meal and tea to discuss solutions to solving apocalypse and mass murder. She fleshes out the dynamics so well, having the humor and wit show up strongly, making it thoroughly enjoyable to the readers. The plot also sent me scrambling to google about what a 'mercury-arc rectifier' is. Ohhh. To turn AC into DC current. Okay.

By the time they returned to the Savoy that evening, laden with bags, Ruthven felt not good, exactly, but something close to himself again. Varney was looking a trifle shell-shocked, which was not uncommon for people who found themselves accompanying Ruthven on shopping trips, especially since it was his credit card that had taken most of the damage. Ruthven made a mental note that the first thing he would do when he got the new Macbook out of its box would be to pay Varney back via online transfer, and he was briefly and vividly glad that such things were possible in the modern age. 

'Dreadful Company' (2018)

This one sees Dr Greta Helsing in Paris doing a favor for her friend to cover his presentation at a niche supernatural medical conference. The first half of this book focuses a lot more of Greta's experiences alone, while being held captive in the dark Parisian catacombs and how she escaped with the help of friendly supernatural entities. 

As luck would have it, after Lord Edmund Ruthven left her while he returned to London to attend to some decorating business, she ran smack into a sinister occurrence, and was kidnapped by the narcissistic and egotistical head of a vampire coven Corvin, whose real name is Neil Geoffrey Higgins. Corvin nurses an old grudge against Lord Edmund Ruthven. 

When Lord Edmund Ruthven and Sir Francis Varney realized that Greta had disappeared, they were in London, and traveled to Paris to rescue her. But with the help of an ancient whistle found in her cell, and an invisible being it hosts called 'the whistler' or the 'whistle monster', she managed to rescue herself. We're introduced to 'hairy monsters' and 'well monsters', all of which almost seemed cute, like pets, without real menace. 

In this story, we also meet the 'protector' of Paris is werewolf Alceste St. Germain, and Grisaille, Corvin's second-in-command who turned against him and left, seeking to assist the two older vampire lords to eradicate this nuisance of an unruly coven. There're three other characters of which I don't particularly care about. There're the two random ghost mediators Gervase Brightside and Crepusculus Dammerung. Irazek is the demon here in Paris, responsible for checking essographs for incursion points and planar disturbances, and kinda failed at his job.

"Mirabilic resonance scanner," Greta repeated, wide-eyed and took him by the shoulders, shaking him gently. "I have to get to talk to your doctor, that's—I can sort of imagine how it might actually work, Fass. that's—do you know how cool that is?"

He smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I might have some idea," he said. "Exposure to very strong and highly polarized mirabilic fields in rapid sequence having some effect in resetting a damaged pneumic signature. You could write a paper about it, if anyone up here would believe you. Incidentally I did mention to Sam that you'd been agitating to have a chat with Dr. Faust, and he says he'll see if something can be arranged."

Good old Fastitocalon returned to earth and Paris to mend the tear in reality. He has been healed back in Hell and returns stronger than before. There's a lot of 'mirabilic' thrown around. "Mirabilic isocenters". Gawwwd. I swear that this is a made-up word.Naturally there's a huge battle waged in the dark catacombs between werewolf and vampires and later on, the ghosts came to help. Our dear circle of friends saw loads of severe but not debilitating injuries. No matter. All well that's well. 

I literally keeled over with laughter when I realized what 'Phantom of the Opera' had to do with this plot. The bit of realized romance that came in at the end between Greta and Varney was quite welcomed, and a hint of a longer-term amiable companionship between Ruthven and surprise surprise, Grisaille. 

'Grave Importance' (2019)

We go to the South of France. Dr Greta Helsing stepped in to help a friend manage a luxury retreat/medical facility Oasis Natrun for mummies. Strange things happened, mummies got vertigo and their energy sapped out of them. The tears in reality were caused by this rich American woman who collected Egyptian artefacts and stumbled upon an Egyptian spell to use magic to keep her young. Using that spell each time, meant taking bits and pieces out of the mummies each time, causing the mummies' fainting spells and deterioration and perhaps eventual disintegration.  

Happening in parallel were this two angels who are really idiots — Zophiel and Amitiel. They're from a parallel universe and thought that this fake Earth and Heaven ought to be destroyed. They wrought a greater tear in the fabric of reality, merging the two universes together. Then apocalypse happened. 

Our dear Lord Edmund Ruthven and Grisaille took a trip to see Greta and then Hell to undo a curse. Sir Francis Varney had accompanied Ruthven to Oasis Natrun to visit Greta and got dragged into the mess too. We see a healthier and happier Fastitocalon. As earth was ruined by blood rain and such, the little circle and medical team then went down to Hell to help out with the wounded angels from the fierce battle wrought in Heaven. The army of angels from the other reality was winning; their version of God was certainly more vengeful and effective. Hell tried to help but it was a losing battle. God didn't come to save the world. Till Varney started praying to God, the one thing he did that no one else thought of. 

God finally appeared to turn things around, to soothe everything over, and restore all that it should be. Humans never realized what happened, save for a few memory bits here and there. All those in Hell remembered though. 

The final book wrapped up nicely with the wedding of Varney and Greta. But there is one question I have. I'm sure everybody is dying to know. Will Greta become a vampire? She is still human at the end of the trilogy though. Grrrrrrr.

Listening to the chatter around them, and watching the live feed of Samael's makeshift war room on one of the large monitors hung here and there on the walls, Grisaille was putting together a mental image of how the infernal civil service worked. The eight branches were under the oversight of the eight archdemons: infrastructure was Ozymandias's division, Beelzebub ran operations, Mephistopheles was health and sciences, Ahriman communications, Azazel arts and culture, Belial external affairs, Mammon budget and finance, and Fastitocalon—in place of Asmodeus—was in charge of monitoring and evaluation. At the moment all of them seemed to be working together as a remarkably well-organised group, and Grisaille was aware of the fact that he found this comforting.