3.5 stars for the LibriVox audiobook narrated by Sibella Denton.

A fun mystery - parts were a little predictable but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment. Hume managed to keep me wondering about who the culprit was right to the end. ( )

The murder of an unidentified man in a hansom cab has all of Melbourne speculating about the murderer and his motive. The witness statements and the evidence point in one direction, but do these observations and clues tell the whole story? Is there more left to learn?

The plot hints of Dickens and Collins, but without either of those author’s polish. I get a sense that the author might not have worked from an outline. The plot makes some sudden shifts, and some of the characters unaccountably change temperaments in the course of the action. Despite these flaws, the story works, and it suits its setting. ( )

An enjoyable read, easy and amusing even though solidly set in the Victorian era. As a mystery, it fails a bit for genre fans, as it’s blindingly obvious who the perpetrator is. Nevertheless, there are some twisty things at the end that give one a pause.
Read it for the characters and for that authentic late 1800’s ambiance. ( )

When a cabbie goes to drop off his customer at the requested stop, he finds the man has been murdered with a chloroform saturated handkerchief. The passenger was put in the cab by a friend, who went part way with him then got out of the cab. The problem is the friend wore a light coat and soft hat that was a popular style at the time. The driver never got a good look at his face.

The victim’s identity is unknown, but soon found out by police detective Samuel Gosby. Through his orderly investigating, he determines a suspect to and gets enough information to bring the man to trial, but it turns out to be a more complicated case than appears.

Secrets from earlier lives, clients who know information but won’t tell, missing papers, blackmail and more, create more twists, turns and dead ends as you read along.

This mystery was written in 1886 by a New Zealander and takes place in Australia. The book was the first by Fergus Hume and out sold the Sherlock Holmes books at that time.

The writing style of the era can be a bit verbose and philosophical at times, but it still has enough detail of characters and plot to make you read on. ( )

years!
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2016
I can fully understand how this marvelous murder mystery, Fergus Hume first, was such a huge success! Hume could not get any publisher in Australia to even read the manuscript So he decided to have five thousand copies published at at his own expense. To his astonishment all copies sold in less than two weeks! ( More than 350 thousand copies were sold later in England.)

A barrister practicing law in Melbourne, Hume wanted to try his hand at writing and it was with unexpected success that The Mystery of the Hansom Cab launched his writing career to the joy of thousands of his devoted readers.

One of the best murder mysteries I have read in 80 years!