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Fergus Hume was born Fergusson Wright Hume July 8 1859 in England. At the age of 3 his family immigrated to New Zealand where he grew up and was educated, being admitted to the bar in 1885. He moved to Melbourne Australia where he tried unsuccessfully to be a playwright. Switching to mystery novels he wrote The Mystery of the Hansom Cab which became the best selling mystery novel of the 19th Century. Returning to England in 1888 he wrote more than 100 short stories and novels including The Silent House, The Secret Passage and Red Money. He continued writing into the 30's dying on July 12. 1932.

Lucian Denzil was a briefless barrister, who so far departed from the traditions of his brethren of the long robe as not to dwell within the purlieus of the Temple. For certain private reasons, not unconnected with economy, he occupied rooms in Geneva Square, Pimlico; and, for the purposes of his profession, repaired daily, from ten to four, to Serjeant's Inn, where he shared an office with a friend equally briefless and poor.

This state of things sounds hardly enviable, but Lucian, being young and independent to the extent of £300 a year, was not dissatisfied with his position. As his age was only twenty-five, there was ample time, he thought, to succeed in his profession; and, pending that desirable consummation, he cultivated the muses on a little oatmeal, after the fashion of his kind. There have been lives less happily circumstanced.