Featuring the impressive vocal talents of sometime Sontaran and Hobgoblin Dan Starkey, the latest from the Big Finish Classics range features the Edwardian supernatural investigator, Thomas Carnacki.
While the company has tackled grander and rather more well-known titles like Frankenstein and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, William Hope Hodgson’s ghostly tales are more contained affairs.
Each of the six stories are topped and tailed by the same device with Dodgson (Joseph Kloska) setting the scene. Carnacki’s guests come for dinner, during which he remains enigmatic, and afterwards settle in to discover the details of the latest investigation.
A reflective storyteller, the Ghost-finder leads us though each encounter with his studious methods. He keeps an open mind; calling himself an “unprejudiced sceptic”, while implementing fastidious searches that can last for weeks on end. As well these rigorous practical methods, he is also well versed in supernatural lore drawing on advice from an ancient manuscript, augmented with modern methods, to create his protective “electric pentacle”.
The tales pan out in a range of ways, some supernatural and others far more mundane. We found a particular joy in the atmosphere of this world, with upper class characters and social standing creating a fertile environment which has a timeless quality. As with Sherlock Holmes, Hodgson lets Carnacki make ample references to unseen cases too, helping to foster faith in his hero’s reputation and abilities.
Dan Starkey brings a tremendous likeability to the role which the author left fairly flat on the page, and we found ourselves drawn in by his insistence and moments of self-depreciation, responding positively when Carnacki addressed us directly. Starkey also entertains with a range of accents, from Irish to American to Ye Olde English, and these add some diversity along the way.
Some of the language is rather of its time, particularly the frequent use of the term ‘funk’ for a moment of cowardly fright or panic, but given they were first published between 1910 and 1912, the stories have remained remarkably easy to become engrossed in.
The sound design is immersive, coupled with haunting music to make ideal listening for dark nights. From rapping on bannisters to whistling rooms and a spectral horse, there is plenty here to enjoy for those who like a mystery and the odd scare too! We understand there are three further Carnacki tales too, so fingers crossed that Big Finish can adapt these as well… and maybe create some more in the same vein?
Released in February 2016 by Big Finish.