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Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low
Flaxman Low, occult detective and psychologist, is an expert in all things supernatural. Follow his exciting cases in these classic stories, as he deals with elemental spirits, fearsome attacks by vengeful family spectres and a final showdown with his evil nemesis Dr Kalmarkane!
148 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1899
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About the author
H. Hesketh-Prichard
62 books8 followersSee also H. Heron.
Major Hesketh Vernon Prichard, later Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC, FRGS, FZS (17 November 1876 – 14 June 1922) was an explorer, adventurer, big-game hunter and marksman who made a significant contribution to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War. Concerned not only with improving the quality of marksmanship, the measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers.
During his lifetime, he also explored territory never seen before, played cricket at first-class level, including on overseas tours, wrote short stories and novels (one of which was turned into a Douglas Fairbanks film) and was a successful newspaper correspondent and travel writer. His many activities brought him into the highest social and professional circles. Despite a lifetime's passion for shooting, he was an active campaigner for animal welfare and succeeded in seeing legal measures introduced for their protection.
Major Hesketh Vernon Prichard, later Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC, FRGS, FZS (17 November 1876 – 14 June 1922) was an explorer, adventurer, big-game hunter and marksman who made a significant contribution to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War. Concerned not only with improving the quality of marksmanship, the measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers.
During his lifetime, he also explored territory never seen before, played cricket at first-class level, including on overseas tours, wrote short stories and novels (one of which was turned into a Douglas Fairbanks film) and was a successful newspaper correspondent and travel writer. His many activities brought him into the highest social and professional circles. Despite a lifetime's passion for shooting, he was an active campaigner for animal welfare and succeeded in seeing legal measures introduced for their protection.
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September 18, 20253.5 Provisional Stars
LibriVox offers an audio book narration, which can be found on Internet Archive here: https://ia802303.us.archive.org/35/it...
or
on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb-P5...
They are the same performance but, for my device, the audio is better listening on the youtube option, which is still only mediocre.
A collection of twelve short stories written between 1898 and 1899 by a mother & son writing team, Hesketh V. Prichard (1876-1922) and Kate O'Brien Prichard (1851-1935), under the pseudonyms E. and H. Heron.
Flaxman Low, a logical psychic detective, solves physical crimes and conundrums provoked by the energies of vengeful revenants, as well as a vapid vampire, and even malicious mycelium. The stories are fun and enjoyable but each story was performed by a different narrator, very variable, and ultimately difficult listening. I'll hold a final rating until I'm able to read the text edition, as this audiobook experience was less than satisfactory 🧚♀️🙋🏼.
LibriVox offers an audio book narration, which can be found on Internet Archive here: https://ia802303.us.archive.org/35/it...
or
on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb-P5...
They are the same performance but, for my device, the audio is better listening on the youtube option, which is still only mediocre.
A collection of twelve short stories written between 1898 and 1899 by a mother & son writing team, Hesketh V. Prichard (1876-1922) and Kate O'Brien Prichard (1851-1935), under the pseudonyms E. and H. Heron.
Flaxman Low, a logical psychic detective, solves physical crimes and conundrums provoked by the energies of vengeful revenants, as well as a vapid vampire, and even malicious mycelium. The stories are fun and enjoyable but each story was performed by a different narrator, very variable, and ultimately difficult listening. I'll hold a final rating until I'm able to read the text edition, as this audiobook experience was less than satisfactory 🧚♀️🙋🏼.
February 10, 2021
3.5
"You know I hold there is no such thing as the supernatural."
Since recently I've also read The Complete John Silence Stories, it's natural for me to make a comparison. On a personal level, Flaxman Low's adventures made for a much pleasanter reading experience. The stories are shorter, much more direct, and although it is possible to argue that Blackwood is a more refined and sophisticated writer than the mother-son couple made of Hesketh-Prichard and Kate Prichard, their stories are more entertaining. Besides, if I am not mistaken, they were the first to test the occult detective formula in serial form, which is definitely a point in their favour.
Moreover, it is also remarkable that the authors manage, in just a few, skillfully timed strokes, to delineate the magic system (although I'm incomprehensibly tempted to call it 'knowledge system') which constitutes Low's expertise. It would seem that John Silence's (which I imagine is shared, at least to a degree, also by other fictional psychic investigators of this period) treatment of occult phenomena as just another and as yet unknown branch of the physical sciences derives precisely from here. This idea sounds ludicrous today, of course, but it becomes absurdly fascinating if you consider that when these stories were published, at the end of the 19th century, this was a real possibility that a number of real scientists were investigating seriously.
"You know I hold there is no such thing as the supernatural."
Since recently I've also read The Complete John Silence Stories, it's natural for me to make a comparison. On a personal level, Flaxman Low's adventures made for a much pleasanter reading experience. The stories are shorter, much more direct, and although it is possible to argue that Blackwood is a more refined and sophisticated writer than the mother-son couple made of Hesketh-Prichard and Kate Prichard, their stories are more entertaining. Besides, if I am not mistaken, they were the first to test the occult detective formula in serial form, which is definitely a point in their favour.
Moreover, it is also remarkable that the authors manage, in just a few, skillfully timed strokes, to delineate the magic system (although I'm incomprehensibly tempted to call it 'knowledge system') which constitutes Low's expertise. It would seem that John Silence's (which I imagine is shared, at least to a degree, also by other fictional psychic investigators of this period) treatment of occult phenomena as just another and as yet unknown branch of the physical sciences derives precisely from here. This idea sounds ludicrous today, of course, but it becomes absurdly fascinating if you consider that when these stories were published, at the end of the 19th century, this was a real possibility that a number of real scientists were investigating seriously.
May 19, 2012
Ghosts: being the experiences of Flaxman Low includes all twelve adventures of ghost-hunter Flaxman Low. The stories were written between 1898 and 1899 by a mother-and-son writing team, Hesketh V. Prichard (1876-1922) and Kate O'Brien Prichard (1851-1935), under the pseudonyms E. and H. Heron.
Flaxman Low was the first of the great fictional psychic detectives. The stories are less well-known than William Hope Hodgson’s tales of Carnacki the ghost finder or Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence stories. I’m not really sure why. They’re perhaps not quite as good but they’re still highly readable and very entertaining. They certainly don’t deserve the obscurity into which they’ve fallen.
One interesting thing about Flaxman Low is that like Sherlock Holmes he has a great nemesis, an evil criminal mastermind with whom he is obsessed. Flaxman Low’s Professor Moriarty is Dr Kalmarkane. Rather than being a master criminal Kalmarkane is something much more dangerous, an occult researcher who uses his powers for evil while Low uses his knowledge of the occult for good. Kalmarkane aims to gain unlimited power through the aid of diabolical allies and black magic.
The stories were obviously patterned on the Sherlock Holmes stories except that Flaxman Low is the brilliant amateur investigator you call in when you’re menaced by a ghost. It’s unfortunate the authors didn’t write more of these stories as they seemed in the later installments to be evolving more and more towards the pattern of the Sherlock Holmes stories with young Dr Gerald d’Irman playing the Dr Watson role and it would have been interesting to see where later stories might have gone.
The stories we do have are mostly haunted house stories. The authors are very much concerned with place. The ghosts are intimately connected with the houses they haunt. The ghosts are linked to both the houses they haunt and in many cases with the people they haunt, or with the original inhabitants of the house.
Like the Carnacki the ghost finder stories you can’t always be sure that the strange events recounted will have a supernatural explanation. Mostly they do, but not always. When the explanations are non-supernatural they’re still delightfully bizarre.
Another distinctive feature of these stories is that they don’t always have clear-cut resolutions. Flaxman Low believes he has solved the puzzle but sometimes he’s not entirely sure. And the reader is not entirely sure either. It’s an interesting rather modern touch. Not everything can be explained with certainty.
I admit to being a big fan of the occult detective genre and if you share my enthusiasm for this style of story you’ll find this volume well worth the purchase price.
Flaxman Low was the first of the great fictional psychic detectives. The stories are less well-known than William Hope Hodgson’s tales of Carnacki the ghost finder or Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence stories. I’m not really sure why. They’re perhaps not quite as good but they’re still highly readable and very entertaining. They certainly don’t deserve the obscurity into which they’ve fallen.
One interesting thing about Flaxman Low is that like Sherlock Holmes he has a great nemesis, an evil criminal mastermind with whom he is obsessed. Flaxman Low’s Professor Moriarty is Dr Kalmarkane. Rather than being a master criminal Kalmarkane is something much more dangerous, an occult researcher who uses his powers for evil while Low uses his knowledge of the occult for good. Kalmarkane aims to gain unlimited power through the aid of diabolical allies and black magic.
The stories were obviously patterned on the Sherlock Holmes stories except that Flaxman Low is the brilliant amateur investigator you call in when you’re menaced by a ghost. It’s unfortunate the authors didn’t write more of these stories as they seemed in the later installments to be evolving more and more towards the pattern of the Sherlock Holmes stories with young Dr Gerald d’Irman playing the Dr Watson role and it would have been interesting to see where later stories might have gone.
The stories we do have are mostly haunted house stories. The authors are very much concerned with place. The ghosts are intimately connected with the houses they haunt. The ghosts are linked to both the houses they haunt and in many cases with the people they haunt, or with the original inhabitants of the house.
Like the Carnacki the ghost finder stories you can’t always be sure that the strange events recounted will have a supernatural explanation. Mostly they do, but not always. When the explanations are non-supernatural they’re still delightfully bizarre.
Another distinctive feature of these stories is that they don’t always have clear-cut resolutions. Flaxman Low believes he has solved the puzzle but sometimes he’s not entirely sure. And the reader is not entirely sure either. It’s an interesting rather modern touch. Not everything can be explained with certainty.
I admit to being a big fan of the occult detective genre and if you share my enthusiasm for this style of story you’ll find this volume well worth the purchase price.
October 16, 2021
Dated, but not dreary, these tales nip along at a fair clip, with nary a moment to imbibe of a tincture of opium, except for one story...
More fun than Carnacki, Silence, and Hesselius. And mostly avoids the Scooby Doo ending.
Also, check out H. Hesketh's life.
More fun than Carnacki, Silence, and Hesselius. And mostly avoids the Scooby Doo ending.
Also, check out H. Hesketh's life.
April 30, 2021
I don’t write reviews.
I found this book. I mean this literally since I don’t recall bringing it home. It was a lovely little treat to be sure! This was like Carnacki without the florid stylings. Low is a cool character: reasonable and quick on his feet. He’s not a stand-out in the world of fiction, but occupies his niche in the history of occult detectives. Delightful!
I found this book. I mean this literally since I don’t recall bringing it home. It was a lovely little treat to be sure! This was like Carnacki without the florid stylings. Low is a cool character: reasonable and quick on his feet. He’s not a stand-out in the world of fiction, but occupies his niche in the history of occult detectives. Delightful!
March 20, 2020
This one was quite exhausting to read. Some of the stories are really interesting and chilly, but some of the others (especially the last one, with the BIG FIGHT with his archenemy) were boring and difficult to read.
And I kinda miss a companion for Flaxman Low, like Sherlock and Watson or Aylmer Vance and his doctor.
And I kinda miss a companion for Flaxman Low, like Sherlock and Watson or Aylmer Vance and his doctor.
April 21, 2025
Disappointing.
I'd never heard of these mother/son authors until I read one of their stories in "Detection by Gaslight." I wasn't blown away, but it was worth a buck and change to check out the rest of their tales about Flaxman Low. The book was published in 1896, so you have to like old stuff (which I do) and paranormal stories (which I don't.)
In the introduction, Low claims to be a researcher who "approaches the elucidation of so-called supernatural problems on the lines of natural law." In other words, he checks out haunted houses and tries to find an explanation, preferably one that doesn't involve spooks. Sometimes he succeeds, but mostly his results depend on the reader buying into occult events or entities.
As did others at the time, he sees studying the occult as part of the new science of psychology. I suppose it is, since psychology is the study of human emotions and our need to believe in something we can't explain seems to be a basic human emotion. Why else would ghost stories be so popular?
It appears to be twelve stories of hauntings, but actually it's ten stories. The last two chapters involve Flaxman Low's battles with a paranormal researcher who seeks to use his knowledge for evil purposes. Can't imagine why the authors went down that road, but it was a mistake.
"The Story of Baelbrown" was printed in "Detection by Gaslight." Maybe it sounded good surrounded by better stories. I wasn't impressed when I re-read it in this collection.
To me, the best entry was "The Story of the Grey House." Low isn't called in for a consultation about a haunting, but happens onto a deserted house and is taken by the eerie story of the abandoned estate. In addition to being wildly over-grown, the grounds resemble a tropical garden transplanted to cold, rainy England. How did that come about?
I also liked "The Story of No. 1 Karma Crescent." Most haunted houses are in isolated rural areas, but this one is in the middle of London. The solution is far-fetched, but proves that Flaxman Low was truthful when he claims he looks for non-paranormal explanations first.
I read the whole book, but I didn't enjoy most of it. Unless you're a ghost story freak and desperate for new stories, stick to M R James and other first-rate writers in the genre.
I'd never heard of these mother/son authors until I read one of their stories in "Detection by Gaslight." I wasn't blown away, but it was worth a buck and change to check out the rest of their tales about Flaxman Low. The book was published in 1896, so you have to like old stuff (which I do) and paranormal stories (which I don't.)
In the introduction, Low claims to be a researcher who "approaches the elucidation of so-called supernatural problems on the lines of natural law." In other words, he checks out haunted houses and tries to find an explanation, preferably one that doesn't involve spooks. Sometimes he succeeds, but mostly his results depend on the reader buying into occult events or entities.
As did others at the time, he sees studying the occult as part of the new science of psychology. I suppose it is, since psychology is the study of human emotions and our need to believe in something we can't explain seems to be a basic human emotion. Why else would ghost stories be so popular?
It appears to be twelve stories of hauntings, but actually it's ten stories. The last two chapters involve Flaxman Low's battles with a paranormal researcher who seeks to use his knowledge for evil purposes. Can't imagine why the authors went down that road, but it was a mistake.
"The Story of Baelbrown" was printed in "Detection by Gaslight." Maybe it sounded good surrounded by better stories. I wasn't impressed when I re-read it in this collection.
To me, the best entry was "The Story of the Grey House." Low isn't called in for a consultation about a haunting, but happens onto a deserted house and is taken by the eerie story of the abandoned estate. In addition to being wildly over-grown, the grounds resemble a tropical garden transplanted to cold, rainy England. How did that come about?
I also liked "The Story of No. 1 Karma Crescent." Most haunted houses are in isolated rural areas, but this one is in the middle of London. The solution is far-fetched, but proves that Flaxman Low was truthful when he claims he looks for non-paranormal explanations first.
I read the whole book, but I didn't enjoy most of it. Unless you're a ghost story freak and desperate for new stories, stick to M R James and other first-rate writers in the genre.
February 25, 2018
This is a Victorian era series of short stories about a sort of ghost detective; a paranormal investigator dealing with ghosts in the late 1800s. It is presented as a journal detailing the activities of a man whose pseudonym given is Flaxman Low, and is in the line of Sherlock Holmes stories rather than horror or fantasy.
Flaxman is a very educated, unflappable but genial man who is fascinated by psychical (the term the book uses) studies and activities. The concept of the supernatural is presented not as something fantastical but as an extension of known science, something that Low is studying to bring more understanding to and expand scientific knowledge.
This series of short stories examines several ghosts, one very odd variant of an elemental, and a few cases which are not supernatural at all, but appear to be. It concludes with the usual arch nemesis being confronted and dealt with.
The tales are interesting and while somewhat suspenseful and spooky, generally in the realm of thought and analysis rather than emotion and deliberately attempting to frighten. Low is likable and interesting, and more importantly plausible, a man who could appear in a Sherlock Holmes story and stand his own against the great detective (and did, in the collection Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes ).
A solid collection of entertaining, and largely forgotten, tales of the supernatural recommended to all fans of Sherlock Holmes.
Flaxman is a very educated, unflappable but genial man who is fascinated by psychical (the term the book uses) studies and activities. The concept of the supernatural is presented not as something fantastical but as an extension of known science, something that Low is studying to bring more understanding to and expand scientific knowledge.
This series of short stories examines several ghosts, one very odd variant of an elemental, and a few cases which are not supernatural at all, but appear to be. It concludes with the usual arch nemesis being confronted and dealt with.
The tales are interesting and while somewhat suspenseful and spooky, generally in the realm of thought and analysis rather than emotion and deliberately attempting to frighten. Low is likable and interesting, and more importantly plausible, a man who could appear in a Sherlock Holmes story and stand his own against the great detective (and did, in the collection Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes ).
A solid collection of entertaining, and largely forgotten, tales of the supernatural recommended to all fans of Sherlock Holmes.
June 20, 2025
I read this alongside The Fountainhead, one story every evening as a sort of palate cleanser to the stodge of Ayn Rand. A mother-son writing team (Hesketh the child of K) is unusual; I can’t think of another one in literature. These late-Victorian ghost tales are enjoyably atmospheric and very readable but suffer slightly from a similarity in milieu and cast. The locations are mostly old houses in isolated locations, and the characters male and of the hunting, shooting and fishing set and/or gentleman scientists and medics. There are very few women: self-effacing matrons, elderly housekeepers (one of them referred to as a ‘crone’) and feisty or frightened but of course pretty young girls. Flaxman Low the psychic detective is a familiar kind of intellectual-athletic prodigy, but not overbearingly so: he is rather likeable.
The two most typical sentences (neither spoken by Low) are probably:
‘Yes, bug-hunting up the Hoang-ho when last I heard of him.’ (The Story of Crowsedge)
and
‘I thought I would come home by the old quarry, and pot anything that showed itself.’ (The Story of the Moor Road)
Personally, I find it difficult to sympathize with a man whose idea of filling time is to shoot random unlucky birds and animals – not even for the purpose of eating them – when he is haunted almost to death by a malign elemental spirit, but that’s just me.
The two most typical sentences (neither spoken by Low) are probably:
‘Yes, bug-hunting up the Hoang-ho when last I heard of him.’ (The Story of Crowsedge)
and
‘I thought I would come home by the old quarry, and pot anything that showed itself.’ (The Story of the Moor Road)
Personally, I find it difficult to sympathize with a man whose idea of filling time is to shoot random unlucky birds and animals – not even for the purpose of eating them – when he is haunted almost to death by a malign elemental spirit, but that’s just me.
May 11, 2024
Blackman Low review
Excellent collection of stories of an occult investigator during the early twentieth century, possibly an influence on Seabury Quinn's Jules Dr Grand in stories.
Excellent collection of stories of an occult investigator during the early twentieth century, possibly an influence on Seabury Quinn's Jules Dr Grand in stories.
June 19, 2023
I would rather reread The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings than this. I took 2 months to read this because I was basically just constantly rolling my eyes. This book did not age well. (“Evil” “Chinamen”, shifty/cunning “Negroes”, and the women being berated by men for being weak of will, faint of heart, and dumb of mind.)
January 11, 2022
These stories can't be called totally incompetent--some of the descriptions are quite creepy, in a pulpy way. But they are seriously let down by being structured like Golden Age mysteries, that all must end with Flaxman Low explaining the phenomena while everyone else stands around and acts impressed. Since these aren't actual mysteries in the way of an Agatha Christie novel (there's no question of the reader solving them, because the "solutions" are always some variation of "it was magic"), what this means is that every story grinds to a halt and ends on an anticlimax. This is a danger of the genre--Lovecraft criticized supernatural detectives for that reason--but I think these stories are worse than most.
Oh, but I told a lie. I said that the solution was also a variation of "magic." That's not true. There's also a story where the solution is "Evil Chinamen using mysterious poisons unknown to Western science." So look forward to that, I guess.
Oh, but I told a lie. I said that the solution was also a variation of "magic." That's not true. There's also a story where the solution is "Evil Chinamen using mysterious poisons unknown to Western science." So look forward to that, I guess.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews