Fergusson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume (8 July 1859 – 12 July 1932) was an English novelist.

Early life

Hume was born in England, the second son of Dr. James Hume. At the age of three years his father emigrated with his family to Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand. He attended Otago Boys' High School

Otago Boys' High School

Otago Boys' High School is one of New Zealand's oldest boys' secondary schools, located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It was founded on 3 August 1863 and moved to its present site in 1885. The main building was designed by Robert Lawson and is regarded as one of the finest Gothic revival...

 and studied law at the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

. He was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. Shortly after graduation he relocated to Melbourne, Australia where he obtained a job as a barristers' clerk

Barristers' clerk

A barristers' clerk is a manager and administrator in a set of barristers' chambers. The term originates in England, and is also used in some other common law jurisdictions, such as Australia. In Scotland, the equivalent role is advocate's clerk....

. He began writing plays, but found it impossible to persuade the managers of the Melbourne theatres to accept or even read them.

Rise to fame

Finding that the novels of Émile Gaboriau

Émile Gaboriau

Émile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...

 were then very popular in Melbourne, he obtained and read a set of them and determined to write a novel of a similar kind. The result was the self-published novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a mystery fiction novel by English writer Fergus Hume. The book was first published in Australia in 1886. Set in Melbourne, the story focuses on the investigation of a homicide involving a body discovered in a hansom cab, as well as an exploration into the social...

(1886), which became a great success. He based his descriptions of poor urban life on his knowledge of Little Bourke Street. He sold the English and United States rights to the novel for fifty pounds, and thus derived little benefit from its success. It eventually became the best selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, John Sutherland terming it the "most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century". This novel inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write "A Study In Scarlet", which introduced the character Sherlock Holmes. As Doyle remarked, "Hansom Cab was a slight tale, mostly sold by 'puffing'".

After the success of his first novel and the publication of another, Professor Brankel's Secret (c.1886), Hume returned to England in 1888. He resided in London for few years and then he moved to the Essex countryside where he lived in Thundersley

Thundersley

Thundersley is a district in the north west of the Castle Point Borough, in south east Essex, England, about 35 miles east of London.-Toponymy:...

 for 30 years, eventually producing more than 100 novels and short stories. He continued to be anxious for success as a dramatist, and at one time Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...

 was favourably considering one of his plays, but he died before it could be produced. Hume did not seek publicity and little is known of his personal life. The writer of the obituary notice in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

stated that he was a very religious man who during his last years did much lecturing to young people's clubs and debating societies. He died at Thundersley, Essex, on 12 July 1932, shortly after completing his last (and extremely rare) book, "The Last Straw".

Individual works

• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
  The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
  The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a mystery fiction novel by English writer Fergus Hume. The book was first published in Australia in 1886. Set in Melbourne, the story focuses on the investigation of a homicide involving a body discovered in a hansom cab, as well as an exploration into the social...
  
  (1886)
• Professor Brankel's Secret (1886)
• Madame Midas (1888)
• The Girl from Malta (1889)
• The Gentleman Who Vanished: A Psychological Phantasy (1890, aka The Man Who Vanished)
• Miss Mephistopheles (1890, aka Tracked by Fate)
• The Year of Miracle: A Tale of the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred (1891)
• A Creature of the Night (1891)
• Monsieur Judas (1891)
• When I Lived in Bohemia (1891)
• Whom God Hath Joined (1891)
• The Black Carnation (1892)
• Aladdin in London (1892)
• The Fever of Life (1892)
• The Island of Fantasy (1892)
• The Chinese Jar (1893)
• The Harlequin Opal (1893)
• The Nameless City: A Romany Romance (1893)
• A Speck of the Motley (1893)
• The Lone Inn (1894)
• The Mystery of Landy Court (1894, aka From Thief to Detective)
• The Best of Her Sex (1894)
• The Gates of Dawn (1894)
• A Midnight Mystery (1894)
• The Crime of Liza Jane (1895)
• The White Prior (1895)
• The Expedition of Captain Flick (1896)
• The Carbuncle Clue (1896)
• A Marriage Mystery (1896)
• Tricked by a Tattoo (1896)
• Claude Duval of Ninety-Five (1897)
• The Tombstone Treasure (1897)
• The Clock Struck One (1898)
• The Rainbow Feather (1898)
• The Devil-Stick (1898, aka For the Defense)
• Lady Jezebel (1898)
• Under One Cover (1898)
• The Red-Headed Man (1899)
• The Silent House in Pimlico (1899)
• The Indian Bangle (1899)
• The Crimson Cryptogram (1900)
• Shylock of the River (1900)
• The Vanishing of Tera (1900)
• The Bishop's Secret (1900, aka Bishop Pendle)
• The Lady from Nowhere (1900)
• A Traitor in London (1900)
• The Millionaire Mystery (1901)
• The Crime of the Crystal (1901)
• The Golden Wang-Ho (1901, aka The Secret of the Chinese Jar)
• The Mother of Emeralds (1901)
• A Woman's Burden (1901)
• The Pagan's Cup (1902)
• The Turnpike House (1902)
• Woman: The Sphinx (1902)
• A Coin of Edward VII (1903)
• The Jade Eye (1903)
• The Silver Bullet (1903)
• The Yellow Holly (1903)
• The Guilty House (1903)
• The Miser's Will (1903)
• The Mandarin's Fan (1904)
• The Wheeling Light (1904)
• The Red Window (1904)
• The Lonely Church (1904)
• The White Room (1904)
• The Secret Passage (1905)
• Lady Jim of Curzon Street (1905)
• The Opal Serpent (1905)
• The Fatal Song (1905)
• The Scarlet Bat (1905)
• The Wooden Hand (1905)
• The Mystery of the Shadow (1906)
• The Black Patch (1906)
• Jonah's Luck (1906)
• The Purple Fern (1907)
• The Yellow Hunchback (1907)
• The Amethyst Cross (1908)
• Flies in the Web (1908)
• The Sealed Message (1908)
• The Green Mummy (1908)
• The Crowned Skull (1908)
• The Mystery of a Motor Cab (1908)
• The Sacred Herb (1908)
• The Devil's Ace (1909)
• The Solitary Farm (1909)
• The Top Dog (1909)
• The Disappearing Eye (1909)
• The Peacock of Jewels (1910)
• The Lonely Subaltern (1910)
• The Mikado Jewel (1910)
• The Spider (1910)
• The Steel Crown (1911)
• High Water Mark
  High water mark
  High water mark may refer to:*Ordinary high water mark, a landscape marking such as floodwater staining left by the highest level of water...
  
  (1911)
• The Jew's House (1911)
• The Pink Shop (1911)
• The Rectory Governess (1911)
• The Mystery Queen (1912)
• The Blue Talisman (1912)
• Red Money (1912)
• Across the Footlights (1912)
• Mother Mandarin (1912)
• A Son of Perdition: An Occult Romance (1912)
• The Curse (1913)
• In Queer Street (1913)
• Seen in the Shadow (1913)
• The Thirteenth Guest (1913)
• The Lost Parchment (1914)
• The 4 PM Express (1914)
• Not Wanted (1914)
• Answered (1915)
• The Caretaker (1915)
• The Red Bicycle (1916)
• The Grey Doctor (1917)
• The Silent Signal (1917)
• Heart of Ice (1918)
• The Black Image (1918)
• Next Door (1918)
• Crazy-Quilt (1919)
• The Master-Mind (1919)
• The Dark Avenue (1920)
• The Other Person (1920)
• The Singing Head (1920)
• The Woman Who Held On (1920)
• Three (1921)
• The Unexpected (1921)
• A Trick of Time (1922)
• The Moth-Woman (1923)
• The Whispering Lane (1924)
• The Caravan Mystery (1926)
• The Last Straw (1932)

Collections of works

• The Piccadilly Puzzle (1889)
• Chronicles of Faeryland (1892)
• The Dwarf's Chamber: And Other Stories (1896)
• Hagar of the Pawn-Shop: The Gypsy Detective (1898)
• The Dancer in Red (1906)

See also

• Arthur Conan Doyle
  Arthur Conan Doyle
  Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
  
  
• Crime fiction
  Crime fiction
  Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
  
  
• Detective fiction
  Detective fiction
  Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
  
  
• Giallo
  Giallo
  Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...
  
  
• List of crime writers
• Mystery fiction
  Mystery fiction
  Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
  
  
• Sherlock Holmes
  Sherlock Holmes
  Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
  
  
• Whodunit
  Whodunit
  A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
  
  

External links

• Works by or about Fergus Hume at Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  (scanned books & audiobooks, original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)
• Fergus Hume bibliography