British Murder Mysteries - The Fergus Hume Collection (ePub)

Fergus Hume was an English novelist who gained fame for his prolific contributions to the crime and mystery genre early in the latter half of the 19th century. Born in 1859 in England, he was raised in New Zealand before settling in Australia, where he embarked on a career as a writer. Hume's first significant success came with the publication of 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' in 1886, which outshined Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels in sales at the time and set the stage for the modern detective novel. His intricate plots and attention to detail attracted a wide readership, fostering a new burgeoning interest in the genre. Following this success, Hume moved back to England and published over 130 novels throughout his career, thus creating a substantial body of work, which is preserved in collections such as the 'British Murder Mysteries - The Fergus Hume Collection.' His works are characterized by melodramatic narratives and often feature a keen sense of place, reflecting the various locales he inhabited throughout his life. Hume's legacy persists in the annals of mystery fiction, with his meticulous approach and the engaging complexity of his stories serving as an archetype for many detective stories that followed. Though lesser known today, his contributions have been a staple in the development of the genre and continue to be examined by scholars and enjoyed by aficionados of classic crime literature.