Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder IV: The Whistling Room | review by Rafe McGregor

The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson

Wordsworth Editions, paperback, £4.99, July 2006, ISBN 9781840225297

Carnacki’s third case takes him back to the West of Ireland, this time to the fictional Iastrae Castle, near Galway. This time, the stately home has been purchased by a wealthy American named Sid K. Tassoc, who is engaged to a local lass, and one of the rooms in its East Wing is beleaguered by a demonic whistling (as indicated by the title). There is a slight variation on what is by now a familiar formula in that there are two dinners at 472 Cheyne Walk and two tales by Carnacki. When he tells the first, he has failed to solve the mystery despite spending many weeks at the scene and making use of his full repertoire of methods and equipment. The second dinner is much shorter and includes the most substantial q&a session thus far, with Carnacki’s guests putting him to the test, as well as a detailed explanation of the manifestation, which draws on Celtic legend and lore. What I liked about this instalment were the false clues set up early on, the hints that the local lads were trying to scare the rich foreigner off so that one of them could marry his fiancée. Hodgson makes good use of the series order, too, having just shown that the rural Irish are precisely the sort of folk capable of procuring supernatural shenanigans when it suits them in ‘The House Among the Laurels’. There is also the first suggestion that ab-human creatures hail from some distance away with “Outer Monstrosities”. My sole complaint is perhaps idiosyncratic: there are too many references to other investigations, at least six. Carnacki mentions the “Buzzing”, “Grey Dog”, “Yellow Finger”, “Silent Garden”, “Grunting Man”, and “Nodding Door” cases. Sometimes less is more.