Fergusson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume (1859 - 1932) was a prolific English novelist producing more than 100 novels and short stories. Finding that the novels of mile Gaboriau were then very popular, 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 (1886), which became a great success. Hume based his descriptions of poor urban life on his...