The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
In the gaslit streets of Melbourne, a city buzzing with gold-rush prosperity and social ambition, a man is found dead inside a hansom cab — and the identity of his killer threatens to unravel the carefully constructed facades of Victorian colonial society. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, first published in 1886, is a landmark of crime fiction that chronicles Detective Gorby's painstaking investigation into a murder entangled with secrets, blackmail, and the rigid class distinctions of late nineteenth-century Australia. Fergus Hume constructs a plot of relentless momentum, drawing the reader through Melbourne's fashionable drawing rooms and shadowy back alleys with equal authority, presenting a vivid portrait of a city at once aspirational and deeply hypocritical. Hume's novel holds the remarkable distinction of being one of the best-selling crime novels of the Victorian era, outselling even Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories upon its release, and it remains a cornerstone of Australian literary heritage. His prose is atmospheric and precise, illustrating how wealth and respectability can mask the darkest of human impulses, while his intricate plotting anticipates the Golden Age detective fiction that would follow decades later. A gripping tale of murder, identity, and moral reckoning, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab leaves one question echoing long after the final page: in a society built on appearances, can justice ever truly be blind?
Author: Fergus Hume
Format: Hardback
Genre: Crime fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
In the gaslit streets of Melbourne, a city buzzing with gold-rush prosperity and social ambition, a man is found dead inside a hansom cab — and the identity of his killer threatens to unravel the carefully constructed facades of Victorian colonial society. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, first published in 1886, is a landmark of crime fiction that chronicles Detective Gorby's painstaking investigation into a murder entangled with secrets, blackmail, and the rigid class distinctions of late nineteenth-century Australia. Fergus Hume constructs a plot of relentless momentum, drawing the reader through Melbourne's fashionable drawing rooms and shadowy back alleys with equal authority, presenting a vivid portrait of a city at once aspirational and deeply hypocritical. Hume's novel holds the remarkable distinction of being one of the best-selling crime novels of the Victorian era, outselling even Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories upon its release, and it remains a cornerstone of Australian literary heritage. His prose is atmospheric and precise, illustrating how wealth and respectability can mask the darkest of human impulses, while his intricate plotting anticipates the Golden Age detective fiction that would follow decades later. A gripping tale of murder, identity, and moral reckoning, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab leaves one question echoing long after the final page: in a society built on appearances, can justice ever truly be blind?