- 236 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) is a mystery novel by Fergus Hume. An immediate bestseller for Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a gripping novel with an atmospheric intensity and tightly wound mystery worthy of the best of Victorian fiction. Published the year before Arthur Conan Doyle's debut, A Study in Scarlet (1887), Hume's novel became the first international bestseller to be published in Australia. Adapted countless times for film, theater, radio, and television, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a classic detective story and a landmark in Australian literature.
In Melbourne, Australia, a cabman stops to pick up a presumably drunk passenger. Helped into the cab by an unknown man, who claims to be a friend, the gentleman settles in for the ride homeward. Accustomed to such things, especially in the darkness of early morning, the cabman begins his ride. When he asks his passenger for directions, however, he receives no response, and turns to find that the man is dead. He drives straight to the local police station, where Detective Gorby begins his investigation. Was the friend in fact the murderer, or was he simply a good Samaritan who believed he was helping a drunk man make it home? When the killer is discovered, however, the mystery remains. Over the story looms the shadow of the Frettlby family, whose secrets threaten to smother all of Melbourne. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a masterpiece of slow-burning suspicion between the rich and the poor, a story of law and those willing to break it.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a classic of Australian mystery and detective fiction reimagined for modern readers.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Preface
- I. What the Argus Said
- II. The Evidence at the Inquest
- III. One Hundred Pounds Reward
- IV. Mr. Gorby Makes a Start
- V. Mrs. Hamilton Unbosoms Herself
- VI. Mr. Gorby Makes Further Discoveries
- VII. The Wool King
- VIII. Brian Takes a Walk and a Drive
- IX. Mr. Gorby is Satisfied at Last
- X. In the Queen’s Name
- XI. Counsel for the Prisoner
- XII. She was a True Woman
- XIII. Madge Makes a Discovery
- XIV. Another Richmond in the Field
- XV. A Woman of the People
- XVI. Missing
- XVII. The Trial
- XVIII. Sal Rawlins Tells all she Knows
- XIX. The Verdict of the Jury
- XX. The “Argus” Gives its Opinion
- XXI. Three Months Afterwards
- XXII. A Daughter of Eve
- XXIII. Across the Walnuts and the Wine
- XXIV. Brian Receives a Letter
- XXV. What Dr. Chinston Said
- XXVI. Kilsip has a Theory of His Own
- XXVII. Mother Guttersnipe Joins the Majority
- XXVIII. Mark Frettlby has a Visitor
- XXIX. Mr. Calton’s Curiosity is Satisfied
- XXX. Nemesis
- XXXI. Hush-Money
- XXXII. De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
- XXXIII. The Confession
- XXXIV. The Hands of Justice
- XXXV. “The Love that Lives”
- A Note About the Author
- A Note from the Publisher