Carnacki (Thomas Carnacki) is an occult detective created by the English writer W. H. Hodgson. He first appeared in "The Gateway of the Monster," published in The Idler magazine in January 1910, and the stories featuring him were collected as "Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder," first published by Eveleigh Nash in 1913. A 1947 Mycroft & Moran edition expanded the book with three additional stories.
Carnacki combines knowledge and experience of what he calls "the ab-natural" with scientific deductive method and equipment — a blend that makes him one of the first true occult detectives. Tales such as "The Whistling Room," "The House Among the Laurels," "The Gateway of the Monster," and "The Haunted Jarvee" are among his best-known cases.
The character was partly inspired by Algernon Blackwood's occult detective John Silence. After Hodgson's death his adventures were continued by a number of later writers, and in 1951 Ellery Queen treated the collection as No. 53 in "Queen's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story." In this way Carnacki stands as an early archetype within the lineage of occult detective fiction.