Tag Archives: Carnacki

A Christmas Conundrum with Carnacki

Carnacki’s Christmas Conundrum
William Jeffrey Rankin
ebook $0.99

If you like William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost Finder, then is will be an electronic stocking stuffer you’ll enjoy. William Jeffrey Rankin was written a tale in which Carnacki awakens in a room beneath the London streets. A note tell shim he’s been placed there by someone who was inconvenienced by Carnacki in a previous case.

Carnacki had met some friends for dinner and a drink on Christmas Eve and on his way out of the restaurant was invited to join a group of men. One of them slips him a Mickey.

Carnacki is trapped beneath the streets of London with apparent way to get out. He’s in a series of chambers with no exits. Although there are these large mirrors…

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. There were some decidedly weird moments. Rankin gets Carnacki out of his trouble, of course, bu he leaves enough loose ends that I want to know what happens next.

Like I said, if you’re a Carnacki fan, this will make a nice gift for yourself. Carnacki’s Christmas Conundrum was just published yesterday, so it’s a gift to yourself you most likely haven’t read yet.

William Hope Hodgson Turns 140

William Hope Hodgson was born 140 years ago today, on November 15, 1877.  He was killed by an artillery shell in 1918 while fighting for the British in WWI.

Hodgson wrote in a number of related genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror, as well as straight nautical adventure.

The novels The House on the Borderland and The Night Land are among his best known works, although they are not considered easy reading as they were deliberately written in an archaic style.

Perhaps currently the most popular of Hodgson’s works are the stories of Carnacki the Ghost-Finder.  These are slightly different than the typical occult detective story in that not all the of cases Carnacki investigates turn out to be due to supernatural causes.  Sometimes the solutions are more mundane.  To my mind, this makes them more interesting.

Carnacki is popular enough that new stories about the character are still being written.