The Secret Passage is a fantastic murder mystery by Fergus Hume. It has contrived another of his hide-and-seek, jack-o'-lantern murder mysteries. The story starts with an elderly, wealthy, and queer woman who was found stabbed to death on her chair with no sign of the culprit. Then, there are so many new clues that even the fictional investigator is perplexed. Then almost everyone is shown to be someone else using an alias, and all the leads are in vain.Young Susan Grant, who is looking for work, turns up at Miss Loach's house, Rose Cottage. Susan is hired as a parlor maid after a quick but intensive interview, and she soon learns about the high expectations Miss Loach has for her staff. Her sister Mrs. Octagon, a self-promotional writer who lives across the street with her husband Peter and daughter Juliet, is a writer. One day, after having afternoon tea with Juliet, Mrs. Octagon brings up her sister, whose peaceful existence she much disapproves of. Her husband unexpectedly enters the room at this precise time with the news of Miss Loach's murder.Was it Susan, whose prior experience working for a shady Spaniard seems dubious at best? Was it Mrs. Octagon, who always reacted with the worst of insults when she brought up her sister?
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.
