The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
The novel, originally published in serial form in a local newspaper, achieved some initial local success when it was first released in book form, but the author
The novel, originally published in serial form in a local newspaper, achieved some initial local success when it was first released in book form, but the author then sold the rights to a British company.
After warm initial reviews in England The Mystery of a Hansom Cab became not merely a best-seller but what today we would call a “blockbuster” in the United Kingdom, its English-speaking colonies and the United States. It was the best-selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, and apparently was part of the inspiration for Conan Doyle to begin writing his Sherlock Holmes stories.
Fergus Hume eventually left Australia and returned to England. Though little-known today, after the success of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab Hume went on to write more than a hundred additional novels in the crime genre, as well as several plays.
