Carnacki the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson

              A book review by Matthew Pegg

The short stories in this book were originally published in 1910.
Hodgson was the son of a clergyman and went to sea for six years
before becoming a writer.  He was responsible for several novels
including "The House on the Borderland" and for this weird little
collection.  He died fighting in the First World War in 1918 and
his work was cited as an inspiration by H.P. Lovecraft.

Carnacki is a consulting detective in the same mould as Sherlock
Holmes but his area of expertise is the supernatural.  His friends
regularly visit him and are regaled with his latest exploits over
brandy and cigars.  Some of the nine stories in this book appear
to be examples of supernatural events but turn out to be hoaxes or
attempted criminal activity disguised with occult trappings.
Others are genuine hauntings but Carnacki's ghosts are not the
kind who wander graveyards in white dresses:  they tend to be
massively malignant forces such as the giant hand which appears
through "The Gateway of the Monster" or the thing which haunts
"The Whistling Room" (I won't spoil it for you!). Carnacki is
armed against them with a mixture of good old British pluck (!),
pseudo-occult knowledge and (for 1910) advanced science.  For
example, he utilises electricity in the form of an electric
pentacle made of vacuum tubes, which is a defence against the
various supernatural forces he encounters. In the later stories he
has developed a more sophisticated device which consists of
concentric circles of different coloured vacuum tubes which can be
combined to attract or repel the forces of the 'Outer Circle'.

The reason Lovecraft liked these stories is obvious because
Hodgson shares his idea of a mythos of threatening forces which
are keen to enroach on the earth and are hostile in the extreme to
human beings. This is demonstrated especially in the last story
"The Hog" which begins innocuously enough with a man called Baines
being referred to Carnacki because of recurring threatening dreams
in which he hears pigs squealing.  This soon develops into the
attempted invasion of this dimension by the ultimate horror of
Hodgson's 'Outer Circle' and Carnacki's occult and scientific
knowledge are powerless to help him!  In some ways I think that
Hodgson's mythos is more successful than Lovecraft's because he
has some of the skill of M.R. James in creating an impression of
something nasty, whereas Lovecraft tends to reveal all about his
'unknowable' horrors and therefore reduce them to something less
terrifying.  These stories are strong on atmosphere and you get an
impression of huge cosmic forces in conflict which mere mortals
can only imperfectly experience:  Carnacki knows more than he is
telling....!

If you like detective stories, or horror, if you are a fan of
H.P. Lovecraft, or if you enjoyed 'The Hound of Shadow', then try
to find this book.  My copy was published by Panther in 1973 and I
don't know if it is still in print but libraries should be able to
get it for you.  Hodgson's style is a little archaic, as are his
notions of stiff upper lip British courage but if you don't mind
that, or if you find it adds an extra veneer of charm to the
stories as I do, then the unusual delights of Carnacki's work
should give you more than a few shivers in the middle of the
night!  You'll never be able to listen to pigs squeal again......