The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (autobiographies to read txt) 📕

was more astonished than I when it passed beyond the narrowcircle for which it had originally been intended.

My mind made up on this point, I enquired of a leading Melbournebookseller what style of book he sold most of He replied that thedetective stories of Gaboriau had a large sale; and as, at this time, Ihad never even heard of this author, I bought all his works--eleven orthereabouts--and read them carefully. The style of these storiesattracted me, and I determined to write a book of the same class;containing a mystery, a murder, and a description of low life inMelbourne. This was the origin of the "Cab." The central idea i.e. themurder in a cab--came to me while driving at a late hour to St. Kilda,a suburb of Melbourne; but it took some time and much thought to workit out to a logical conclusion. I was two months sketching outthe skeleton of the novel, but even so, when I had written it, theresult proved unsatisfactory, for I found I had not sufficiently wellconcealed the mystery upon wh