6 h 3 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A room whistles, a house seems haunted, and Thomas Carnacki wants proof before he calls anything a ghost.
In William Hope Hodgson’s linked tales, Thomas Carnacki investigates houses, rooms and families troubled by apparent hauntings. He weighs evidence, tests his guesses and brings strange instruments into places thick with fear. Old books of ritual also have their place. The question is never simple: does something unseen threaten the living, or is someone arranging a trick?
Each account begins with an invitation to dinner at Carnacki’s home in Chelsea, London. His friends gather, and Dodgson records the case as Carnacki tells it. Tales including The Whistling Room, The Horse of the Invisible and The Thing Invisible draw you from that familiar circle into cold rooms, troubling sounds and the uneasy feeling of being watched.
What you’ll discover
- Evidence against the uncanny Follow an investigator who tests strange events rather than accepting the first frightening explanation.
- Instruments beside old rituals Discover cases where practical tests share space with old occult knowledge.
- Fear at the lamplight’s edge Feel how a shadow or an unexplained sound can make an ordinary room unsettling.
- A place at dinner Join Carnacki’s friends as he turns an evening gathering into an account of dread.
- Ghost or human trick Weigh each clue while the boundary between deception and supernatural danger remains uncertain.
Who will love it
For readers who love ghost stories, Victorian and Edwardian atmosphere, and puzzles with a chill, where detective work meets occult ritual.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Dinner first, then the ghost story
- A detective who tests the unseen
- Not every haunting is what it seems
- Dread built from sound, shadow and sea
Who’s who
- Thomas CarnackiThe investigator of hauntings who tells each tale and tests strange events with both modern instruments and old occult knowledge.
- DodgsonOne of Carnacki's friends, who sets down each story as he hears it after dinner.
- JessopA dinner guest and friend of Carnacki, who listens to each case in the circle of friends.
- ArkrightAnother of Carnacki's friends at the table, who hears the accounts of his cases.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Carnacki, le détective de l’occulte
by William Hope Hodgson · 1913
Carnacki tests haunted rooms with instruments and old ritual, seeking the truth behind each terror.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
Dinner first, then the ghost story
Each tale begins in the same way. Carnacki sends a short card to a handful of friends, asking them to come to dinner at his home in Chelsea, London. The tale is told by one of those guests, Dodgson, who sits with the others and listens.
The meal is plain and friendly, and Carnacki will not talk shop while they eat. Only when the dinner is over and the men have settled in their chairs does he begin. He tells them about a recent case from start to finish, and then he sends them out into the night.
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What is Carnacki the Ghost Finder about?
It is a set of linked tales about Thomas Carnacki, an investigator of hauntings who tells his friends about his cases over dinner. He uses instruments and old ritual to find the truth behind each haunting.
Who is Carnacki?
Carnacki is a London occult detective created by William Hope Hodgson. He studies strange events like a scientist, yet he also protects himself with old rituals and a device called the electric pentacle.
What is the electric pentacle?
It is Carnacki's protective device, a modern, electrical form of the magic circle of old occult lore. He sits inside it when he expects danger, and it joins his love of science with the occult.
The author
William Hope Hodgson
1877–1918 · English horror and fantasy writer
William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was a British writer born in Essex, England. He worked as a sailor before becoming a writer. His novels include The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912). He served in the British Army and was killed in France during the First World War.
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