Hagar of the Pawn-Shop

Hagar of the Pawn-Shop is a mystery novel by American author Fergus Hume.

Hagar Stanley, a beautiful young Gypsy, is driven by sexual harassment to leave her tribe and seek refuge with her uncle Jacob, a miserly London pawnbroker. He dies after teaching Hagar the business, and she takes over running the popshop till the legitimate heir can be traced.

In the odd assortment of objects that pass across her counter, Hagar uncovers one mystery after another. Some items are linked to actual crimes, others to iniquitous acts of human deceit and betrayal. Whether investigating independently or alongside the police, Hagar combines her native shrewdness with woman's intuition to help untangle the webs of wickedness she encounters, that justice might prevail in the end. 

Though the individual mysteries in Hagar of the Pawn-shop may be read separately, they are so arranged by Fergus Hume as to form a linked set, with characters from earlier stories popping up again later on, one as Hagar's love interest and another as her nemesis.

Hagar of the Pawn-shop was first published in 1898. E-Book: ePUB, 72,000 words, average reading time 6 hours. Unabridged full version. Also available as audiobook read by Grant Hurlock, running time 8 hours, 20 min.

Fergusson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a prolific English novelist. His first novel was the self-published novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), which became a great success. It eventually became the best selling mystery novel of the Victorian era.