Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw – Review

Published: July 31, 2018

Publisher: Orbit

Series: Dr. Greta Helsing #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 400 (Paperback)

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Contemporary fantasy in the world of Strange Practice, starring Dr. Greta Helsing, whose family has been keeping the supernatural community not-alive and well for generations.

When Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, is unexpectedly called to Paris to present at a medical conference, she expects nothing more exciting than professional discourse on zombie reconstructive surgery and skin disease in bogeymen — and hopefully at least one uneventful night at the Opera.

Unfortunately for Greta, Paris happens to be infested with a coven of vampires — and not the civilized kind. If she hopes to survive, Greta must navigate the darkest corners of the City of Lights, the maze of ancient catacombs and mine-tunnels underneath the streets, where there is more to find than simply dead men’s bones.

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It is so rare I come across a book I enjoy as much as I did Dreadful Company. It’s a modern urban fantasy in which our main character is the venerable Dr. Greta Helsing. Unlike your commonplace doctor, she specializes in the treatment of those supernatural creatures, ranging from vampires, to ghouls, to millennia old mummies. Greta is a Londonite (is that the correct term?) though for this particular installment she is visiting Paris for a supernatural research conference. Because that’s a thing and it’s wholesomely nerdy and I love it.

Only recently just getting back to normal life following the defeat of crazed and murderous acolytes of an ancient being some months prior, Greta is now about to face something else entirely too exciting… A coven of vampires with sartorial tastes straight from Interview with a Vampire and an unhealthy amount of body glitter. Good lord, the body glitter. The leader of this wanton coven apparently has a grudge against Greta’s close friend, Lord Edmund Ruthven and as a result she gets kidnapped in an effort to lure him to their dank lair. I mean, really he would never take them seriously, they all sleep in coffins, have fake “elegant” names, and have been murdering people at an alarming rate. And whilst Greta is imprisoned, she’s forced to subsist on a diet of coffee and chocolate croissants! Egad! The coven isn’t all bad, particularly the poor girl who’s going by “Sofiria”. She was turned against her will and is generally in a terrible situation that she can’t seem to escape.

This was such a good book and I can honestly say I loved every page of it. The humor (which I know can be very subjective) completely appealed to me and I got a few good hard laughs out of this. I liked that we had a change of scenery in this book, moving from rainy and cold London to Paris, though much of the book seems to be spent in the catacombs. We were introduced to several new characters in this installment and I liked all of them. They all had unique personalities and I was rather fond of St. Germain, the protector of Paris, who was so distracted by writing his history book that he completely failed to do his rounds and root out the murderous bloodsucking turds squatting in his catacombs. There seems to be a theme of oversight in this book, as Irazek our carroty haired demon also failed to collect his readings in a timely manner and report the results… Of course, there were old favorites included here as well – Ruthven, Varney, and Fastitocalon are all involved as well. Just like old times.

This was a spectacularly fun book that has a vibe very similar to The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, another urban supernatural fantasy book that I absolutely adored. I would recommend reading Strange Practice before picking up Dreadful Company for the full effect, but it’s not entirely necessary. Greta is a capable and relatively calm character and I really enjoy the subtle romantic thing she and Varney have going on. It’s not one of those cloying relationships that overpowers the rest of the story and it really rounds things out. I read the teaser for the next book (included in the back of Dreadful Company) and the prospect of spontaneously disintegrating mummies and a nice adventure in the South of France sounds right up my alley. I’m greatly looking forward to the cover reveal and getting my hands on a copy, though it won’t be out until this time next year.