Carnacki, the Ghost Finder

The Whistling Room  by William Hope Hodgson (1912)

 

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror  October 11, 2016

 

“Then I heard it, an extraordinary hooning whistle, monstrous and inhuman, coming from far away through corridors to my right.”

October is the month for ghost stories. We love stories about luminous skulls or cavernous tombs, haunted grounds, haunted castles. These other worlds draw us in. Can you hear the call? Is it hovering behind your ear? Chilling your neck? Come into the world of Carnacki the ghost finder.

Do you believe there could be a  hidden mischief in  silence? Carnacki is a ghost hunter. He is invited by  Mr. Tassoc, owner of  Lastrae Castle in Ireland, where a room is said to emit an evil whistle that drives all away in horrific fear. Carnaki agrees to spend a few weeks at the castle to solve the mystery.

“This room had just that same malevolent silence—the beastly quietness of a thing that is looking at you and not seeable itself, and thinks that it has got you. Oh, I recognized it instantly, and I whipped the top off my lantern, so as to have light over the whole room.”

 

 

This is one of William Hope Hodgson’s  (1877-1918) most famous ghost story and it delivers all the haunting elements of paranormal phenomena.  He wrote novels and short stories and many explore the borders of human existence and beyond. Lovecraft  said  that Hodgson was ‘second only to Blackwood in his serious treatment of unreality.”  Hodgson certainly deserves revival these days, as he has long been forgotten as one of the most skilled writers of  supernatural mysteries.

Read it at Gaslight.mtroyal.ca:

http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/carnack3.htm

 

I loved the audio of this story. Settle back and listen to this ghostly storytelling in the spirit of Halloween (30 minutes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlZQ7jhM_c8

 

 

Don’t forget to view the INDEX above of more free Tales of Terror. This is a compendium of over 170 short stories by over 100 master storytellers of mystery,  supernatural, horror, and ghost stories. Join me in reading one short story every other week! Comments are welcome.

 

Other Reading Web Sites to Visit

Slattery’s Art of Horror Magazine

Books & Such   Bibliophilica    Lovecraft Ezine   Parlor of Horror

 HorrorAddicts.net     Horror Novel Reviews    HorrorSociety.com     

Monster Librarian     HorrorNews.net     HorrorTalk.com 

 Rob Around Books      The Story Reading Ape Blog

For Authors/Writers:  The Writer Unboxed

EZindiepublishing

Ghostly and Mournful Mists

The Voice in the Night  by William Hope Hodgson (1907)

Tuesday’s Tale of Terror    April 28, 2015

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“It was a dark, starless night. We were becalmed in the Northern Pacific.”

 

So opens this sea adventure into a lurking and mysterious world. We have two sailors in a schooner in the Pacific. It’s dark and misty and they are unsure of their position. A singular voice—inhuman but throaty—comes across the sea. Poor soul, is he shipwrecked and starving? That may be true and much more as unknown forces descend and this nautical yarn unravels. What greater horror is there than to be stranded in the dark ocean with weird powers lurking? This atmospheric tale was adapted into a 1963 film (The Attack of the Mushroom People) and was an episode in the TV series Suspicion in 1958. The story originally appeared in The Blue Book Magazine in 1907.

 

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William  Hope Hodgson is considered to be the famous but forgotten master of cosmic horror.  He is well known for his occult detective Thomas Carnacki in the novel The Whistling Room, and for numerous stories of weird, fantastic, and science fiction. H.P. Lovecraft said that Hodgson “was second only to Algernon Blackwood in his serious treatment of unreality.”

Are you a fan of the unreality?

 

 

 

Read the full text at Gaslight.mtroyal.ca

 

 

Listen to the audio at Pseudopod.org.