Before You Begin

Before you begin.

In late-Victorian Melbourne, a hansom cab reaches the St Kilda police station before dawn with an unidentified passenger. The inquest points toward murder, and suspicion settles on young Brian Fitzgerald. Detective Samuel Gorby, barrister Calton, and Madge Frettlby follow the clues through gaslit streets, lodging houses, grand homes, and crowded courtrooms.

Fergus Hume first published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab in 1886. Melbourne gives the mystery a close view of social contrasts: fashionable St Kilda beside the inner-city lanes, family fortunes beside precarious lives. The novel leaves its year partly open as “18—,” and asks readers to weigh the evidence as the story unfolds.

This edition follows the novel’s thirty-five chapters. Character portraits, selected places, full-page scenes, and chapter recaps accompany the reading; Story Medallions unlock at their passages. Enter at St Kilda before dawn, and let the clues gather in their own time.