Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

Hume, Fergus

Paperback

Mystery & ThrillerClassic FictionLiterary Fiction

ISBN13: 9791043138218
Publisher: Les Prairies Numeriques
Published: Feb 27 2026
Pages: 342
Weight: 1.01
Height: 0.76 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

Fergus Hume

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, published in 1886, was the first novel by Fergus Hume. It begins with a sensational murder, as the body of a dead man is discovered in a hansom cab by the driver. Set in Melbourne, Australia, it presents an engaging story of crime and detection, with several unexpected twists and turns. It also gives a clear and interesting portrait of the colonial city at the peak of its 19th Century prosperity following a gold rush, a time when it was known as Marvellous Melbourne. The novel contrasts the comfortable lives of the rich and well-connected of the colony with the misery of those living in the noisome slums in the back-streets of the city.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.

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