The Adventures of Roderick Langham

by Rafe McGregor

Roderick Langham is a retired soldier, disgraced police inspector, and reluctant occult detective. He inhabits the world of Sherlock Holmes, investigates cases with John Watson and Sebastian Moran, and is able to perceive the reality concealed by the illusion of everyday appearances. These nine stories follow Langham from his first encounter with the inexplicable in the Himalayan hills to his investigation of the wreck of the Demeter and his growing realisation that the dales, moors, and wolds which surround his Yorkshire refuge are home to an evil far older than the honeycomb of medieval monasteries and Roman ruins suggests.

Rafe McGregor is the author of The Value of Literature, The Architect of Murder, six collections of short fiction, and one hundred and fifty magazine articles, journal papers, and review essays. He lectures at the University of York and can be found online at @rafemcgregor.

Praise for Rafe McGregor’s The Architect of

“Arthur Conan Doyle is alive and well, and writing under the name Rafe McGregor.” – Tess Gerritsen

“Rafe McGregor is the architect of murderously good historical fiction.” – Gyles Brandreth

“…a fascinating marriage of investigative mayhem with keen attention to historical detail…” – Graham Hurley

“There’s some dandy police procedure…and plenty of interesting characters to carry the story along.” – Bill Crider

“…an exciting read, giving a very authentic flavour of the period…” – Bernard Knight

Genres: Horror

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2017

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This smallish book contains some of the most well-crafted tales breathing in the victorian atmosphere. It contains the following~
1. The Last Testament: we meet Roderick Langham;
2. The Colonel's Madness: an exquisite tale involving military history, tension, and murder;
3. The Long Man: Langdan beats Sherlock Holmes, or does he?
4. The Tired Captain: study of the mystery surrounding the 'Demeter';
5. The Wrong Doctor: did Sherlock Holmes make an error?
6. The Paradol Chamber: who was Jack the Ripper?
7. The Devil's Hollow: fate brings Wilfrid Fletcher and Langham together;
8. The Wolf Month: what kind of creature is attacking people in a quaint village?
9. The Christmas Cracker: pleasant game at midnight results in something different.
These tales were dense yet lucid, with neat world-building acting as the backdrop of mysteries and/or occult events that are suitably gothic. While the gothic tales are appropriately atmospheric, the Victorian mysteries are suitably realistic.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed this book, and would definitely like to read more adventures of Roderick Langham.
Highly recommended.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories improve as you go, til the last few are very well put together indeed. Like the better Holmes pastiches, they're a mix of real historical events, "borrowed" fictitious elements (like the dead ship from Dracula) and pure invention. I get the impression that there was no intention initially of an ongoing narrative, as the progression from one story to the next is very uneven at first. And the stories themselves are pretty uneven, though they seemed to me to improve markedly around the third or fourth story, when Holmes and Watson make their appearance on the scene.

So far as the Holmes element goes - it was refreshing to see someone give Watson a turn in the spotlight, particularly a Watson bold, loyal and resolute, as Doyle surely intended him. The Holmes we meet in a couple of these stories, however, is a boorish stranger and while the stories are imaginative and the adherence to canonical dates and facts is impressive, I disliked McGregor's characterization of the retired detective.

That aside, these are worth reading and more enjoyable yet if you read the author's note for each story.

[Seth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read overall. I much rather preferred the weird fiction/supernatural set stories over the traditional Victorian detective stories, but I did enjoy them. If you are a fan of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes then you might be offended at several of the stories in this collection, especially when it comes to the depiction of Holmes in retirement. However, I did find this to be an enjoyable set of stories of an interesting detective. You will get to witness Roderick Langham encounter Lovecraftian terrors, investigate the infamous wreck of the Demeter (from Dracula), and interact with the famous Baker street detectives.

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FINE SET OF DETECTIVE TALES IT IS...

Hello, this ole boy can sure tell a story. The writing was spot on for the time period. Extremely well written and entertaining to read. I hope to read more about Detective Langham in the future. Some people are just too interesting for just one book. Great stuff. Thanks.

[Chris Stoneking · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read by itself, better if you are a Sherlock Holmes fan. Serialized story format doesn't do much for me, but enjoyed it anyway.

[Jerry Richardson]

Excellent stories

Detective and weird fiction very well researched and written. If you like weird fiction or Sherlock Holmes stories, I highly recommend this collection. The Holmes stories aren't weird tales, but feature the same main character, Roderick Langham, and present an interesting contemporary take on Holmes.