6 h 3 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 3 minPaperback · 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
You will love this if you enjoy ghost stories told by a fireside, detective puzzles with a spooky edge, and Edwardian London settings. Readers who like to guess whether a haunting is real or staged will find six cases to test them.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Dinner first, then a ghost story
- The Grey Room tests a ghost hunter's nerve
- Old rituals and electric light guard him
- A manor, a legend and a blood-drip
- A whistling room that cannot be recorded
- Hoofbeats follow the eldest daughter
- A quiet cottage fills with a smell
- An old dagger strikes in full view
- Fear, reason and the limits of explanation
Who’s who
- CarnackiA Chelsea ghost finder who uses cameras, seals and old rituals in his investigations, and tells his cases to friends after dinner.
- DodgsonThe friend who tells the stories, one of four guests at Carnacki's dinners, who listens and keeps a record.
- Jessop, Arkright and TaylorThe three other regular guests, who ask Carnacki the questions his stories leave open.
- PeterThe old, loyal butler of the Grey Room, who stands guard at its door and fears for Carnacki.
- Sid TassocAn American who buys Iastrae Castle and wants to marry Miss Donnehue, but must cope with a room that whistles.
- Captain HisginsA brave old soldier who guards his daughter Mary against the family horse legend with a drawn sword.
- BeaumontA young naval officer engaged to Mary Hisgins, who refuses to leave her side whatever haunts the house.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 3 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Carnacki, the Ghost Finder
by William Hope Hodgson · 1913
A ghost hunter seals a haunted bedroom, but its locked door slams through the night.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What does a man do when a door slams all night in a room he has locked? These six tales by William Hope Hodgson follow Carnacki, a ghost finder who investigates hauntings with ribbons, cameras and chalk stars.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Dinner first, then a ghost story
The tales share a familiar gathering of friends. Carnacki sends a card, and four friends gather at his house at 427 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea for dinner. They are Jessop, Arkright, Taylor and the friend who tells the story, who is called Dodgson once. Only when the meal is over does Carnacki settle into his big chair, light his pipe and begin.
He is a ghost finder, but a careful one. He calls himself an open-minded skeptic. He says that ninety-nine reported hauntings in a hundred are nonsense, and that only the hundredth gives him a story worth telling. So he uses seals, hairs, wafers, cameras and probes to test possible causes before accepting a ghost.
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What is Carnacki, the Ghost Finder about?
It is a set of tales in which Carnacki, a ghost finder in Chelsea, tells his four friends after dinner about his hauntings. He investigates strange sounds, rooms and apparitions with cameras, seals and old protective rituals.
Who is Carnacki?
He is an investigator of haunted houses who calls himself an open-minded skeptic. He tests every claim, uses a chalk pentacle and an Electric Pentacle, and says most hauntings have ordinary causes.
What is the Electric Pentacle?
It is Carnacki's own device, a five-pointed ring of glowing vacuum tubes. He built it after reading about experiments with a medium, and uses it alongside chalk circles, garlic and water.
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.
More by William Hope Hodgson
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