Australian author Fergus Hume is the author of the mystery fiction book The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. In 1886, Australia released the book for the first time. The plot, which is set in Melbourne, focuses on the investigation of a homicide in which a body was found in a hansom cab and also explores the social class disparity in the city. After that, it was released in both Britain and the United States. It eventually sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide, outpacing Arthur Conan Doyle's debut Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet (1887). The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is set in Melbourne, Australia, and centers on an inquiry into a murder that occurs when a victim is found in a hansom cab early in the morning. The author used Melbourne extensively in the story, saying that "Overall the enormous metropolis hung a cloud of smoke like a pall." The involvement of the influential and secretive Frettlby family, as well as their secret-that they have a daughter living on the streets and that the lady everyone believes to be their daughter is not their daughter-are more important revelations in the plot than the killer's identity.
Fergus Hume, also known as Ferguson Wright Hume, was a successful English author best known for his detective fiction, suspense novels, and mysteries. He lived from 8 July 1859 to 12 July 1932. The second son of James C. Hume, a Scot who worked as a clerk and steward at the County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum in Powick, Worcestershire, England, Hume was born there. His family moved to Dunedin, New Zealand, when he was three years old, where he pursued a legal education. Hume moved to Melbourne, Australia, as a barristers' clerk soon after graduating. He started creating plays, but he was unable to get theatre directors to read or even accept them. In addition to various collections and more than 130 novels, Hume wrote the majority of them as mystery stories. He also contributed words to songs that his brother-in-law Charles Willeby had composed. He is listed as an "author" in the 1911 Census, residing in Church Cottage, Essex, at the age of 51. He passed away at Thundersley on July 12, 1932, and is buried close to the Rev. Maley and an actress in an unmarked cemetery. He only left a few little things in his will, including a pipe and a horse blanket.
