carnacki the ghost finder by william hope hodgson

The only reason I was able to afford the copy I found was that it had some water damage and was on sale for a third off. I really, really wanted the book after reading the two best stories in anthologies and this was one of two editions I knew existed back in those pre-world wide web days. It's certainly worth reading even though the stories are uneven in quality.

I'm glad there are plenty of reprint copies around now. Carnacki with her fireplace poker in one hand and candle in the other, providing a rearguard to her son. Given when this book was written, it's nice that in the one story in which Carnacki's mother appears she's not shivering in a corner and wringing her hands while her son investigates. Hodgson's choice of supernatural hogs is scarier. Now that I've read the author's earlier work, THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, with its humanoid swine monsters Mr. 'The Hog' puzzled me because I couldn't figure out why hogs were supposed to be so horrifying. ) One story has no supernatural elements whatsoever, but it is a nice piece of detection. (Of course, they couldn't flee for their lives in the story that takes place on an old ship, but they could choose whether to let whatever is there kill them or to jump overboard and drown.

In Carnacki's investigations he comes across fakes, fakes combined with the ghosts, and Very Dangerous Supernatural Menaces that should make today's ghost hunters flee for their lives. I'm giving the book a four-star rating overall, but two of the stories, 'The Gateway of the Monster' and 'The Whistling Room,' deserve five stars, and a few I'd give only three.

Carnacki the ghost finder by william hope hodgson