Free on
Amazon Aus Fergus Humes'
The Mystery of the Hansom Cab
Quote:
This unlikely first literary attempt by a young law clerk in Australia, published in Melbourne, became the best-selling mystery novel of the 19th century, better even than Sherlock Holmes.
In the dead of night, on a dark, lonely street in Melbourne, a cabby discovers that his drunken passenger has been murdered--suffocated with a chloroform saturated handkerchief. The murderer, his motive, even the identity of the victim are unknown.
WHAT THE ARGUS SAID. The following report appeared in the Argus newspaper of Saturday, the 28th July, 18 "Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and certainly the extraordinary murder which took place in Melbourne on Thursday night, or rather Friday morning, goes a long way towards verifying this saying. A crime has been committed by an unknown assassin, within a short distance of the principal streets of this great city, and is surrounded by an inpenetrable mystery. Indeed, from the nature of the crime itself, the place where it was committed, and the fact that the assassin has escaped without leaving a trace behind him, it would seem as though the case itself had been taken bodily from one of Gaboreau's novels, and that his famous detective Lecoq alone would be able to unravel it.
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Kobo Aus has got it for $3.49 and discountable
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A telemovie of the novel was shown on Aus tv earlier this year .... I enjoyed it
