Böcker av Fergus W. Hume

A timeless narrative of suspense and intrigue, Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) is the original Australian best-selling crime novel set in pre-Federation Melbourne. From the salons of the city's elite to the slums of Little Bourke St, the exquisitely plotted story follows the investigation, inquest and trial of the murder of a little-known English migrant. At first a self-published book, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab became a blockbuster with over half a million copies of the 1898 edition sold by its London publisher and inspired the genre of detective fiction, including Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. This new edition of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, with introduction by Robert Dixon, is a part of the Australian Classics Library series intended to make classic texts of Australian literature more widely available for the secondary school and undergraduate university classroom, and to the general reader. The series is co-edited by Emeritus Professor Bruce Bennett of the University of New South Wales and Professor Robert Dixon, Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, in conjunction with SETIS, Sydney University Press, AustLit and the Copyright Agency Limited. Each text is accompanied by a fresh scholarly introduction and a basic editorial apparatus drawn from the resources of AustLit.

"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" takes place in Melbourne, Australia and involves an investigation into a homicide, after a corpse is discovered in the evening, in a hansom cab.The city of Melbourne plays a significant role in the plot and, as the author describes: "Over all the great city hung a cloud of smoke like a pall." The killer's identity is not as significant a revelation in the story as are the roles of the influential and secretive Frettlby family, and their secret: they have an illegitimate daughter living on the streets. The class divide between Melbourne's wealthy and less fortunate is addressed throughout the plot.The protagonist in the novel is a policeman named Detective Gorby, who is given the task of solving the murder. As Hume describes the character's investigative skills: "He looked keenly round the room, and his estimate of the dead man's character was formed at once."The author commented in a later introduction, "All of the scenes in the book, especially the slums, are described from personal observation; and I passed a great many nights in Little Bourke Street, gathering material". At this time, the street had gained notoriety as a place frequented by prostitutes and criminals.