William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder was published in 1913, and contained six stories describing the adventures of the plucky occult detective Thomas Carnacki. Each story followed the same formula: Carnacki, having successfully concluded an investigation into the Ab-natural, would meet with four friends at his home near the Thames Embankment and regale them with the hair-raising details of his case before dismissing them good-naturedly into the night.