Fergus Hume was born in England in 1859 and raised in Dunedin, New Zealand. He studied Law at the University of Otago and after graduation relocated to Melbourne, Australia as a barristers' clerk. Inspired by the crime novels of Émile Gaboriau, he wrote the novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne, which became the best-selling mystery novel of the Victorian era. Hume returned to England in 1888, producing more than 100 novels and short stories. He died in 1932.