William Hope Hodgson 2 hr 50 min read

An occult detective gathers his friends to dinner and recounts his latest case, a gateway, a monster, and the thin line between the fake haunting and the real.

William Hope Hodgson's 1913 collection introduces Thomas Carnacki, who investigates hauntings with both scientific skepticism and genuine dread, armed with his Electric Pentacle against horrors that may or may not be earthly. A classic of the occult-detective tradition. Read it for atmospheric Edwardian ghost-hunting that balances rationalism and real terror.

In its time

Published in 1913, during the 1910s, lost worlds and interplanetary adventure.

Reading it

2 hr 50 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).