Called Back

Hugh Conway aka Frederick John Fargus (1847-1885) was a Bristol auctioneer who found fame as a writer when his 1883 book Called Back sold an astonishing 350,000 copies and was the publishing sensation of the year, effectively reinventing the crime novel. Compared favourably to Wilkie Collins, he wrote the equally successful Called Back the following year, but died from typhoid in 1885 aged only 37, cutting short a promising writing career.