7/27/188? Australian mystery fiction begins

July 27, 188?.  Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, published in 1886, is usually considered the first Australian mystery novel.  It begins on a smoky night in Melbourne, July 27, when a dead body is discovered in a hansom cab.  Hume self-published the book and sold 25,000 copies of the first edition.  Over a million copies were sold in Britain and the United States combined.  Not a bad start.

7/27/188? Australian mystery fiction begins

July 27,188?.  Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, published in 1886, is usually considered the first Australian mystery novel.  It begins on a smoky night in Melbourne, July 27, when a dead body is discovered in a hansom cab.  Hume self-published the book and sold 25,000 copies of the first edition.  Over a million copies were sold in Britain and the United States combined.  Not a bad start.