Mary Fortune was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1833. She was taken to Canada as a child by her father George Wilson and there married Joseph Fortune and had one child, a son. She left her husband and immigrated to Australia in 1855 and joined her father on the Victorian goldfields. There she married a policeman Percy Brett and had another son. The marriage failed and Mary Fortune was left to cope with life without the help of a male supporter.
She took to writing stories for the Australian Journal. Mary Fortune was one of the first women in Australia to support herself by writing stories of 'crime fictin' and some other longer stories.
Three Murder Mysteries, Mary Fortune
THREE MURDER MYSTERIES by Mary Fortune is an absolute little treasure of a book and I feel so grateful to Lucy Sussex for her pursuit of Mary's story and her writing, and for getting this wonderful little book published.
Mary Fortune had over five hundred crime stories published, all set in Australia. In 1871 a collection of these were published under the title The Detective's Album - a book which is now very very rare and very very expensive.
The three stories that Lucy has chosen to be incorporated in this little book are wonderful examples of not only Mary Fortune's skill as a writer, but how good crime fiction doesn't age. The themes of these stories are as valid now as they were in the late 1800's when they were written.
IN THE CELLAR is set in the goldfields in and around Maryborough in Victoria, THE HART MURDER in the fledgling farming world of early Victoria whilst THE PHANTOM HEARSE takes the reader into the city (and raises the tantalising prospects of ghosts on the streets of Melbourne!).
Not only are these short stories which are clever in their execution, they are extremely entertaining. Touches of a puzzle for the reader to solve, they explore the same sorts of social issues that we are still dealing with today. There is also a light touch of humour in some.
Leaving aside the tale of Mary Fortune herself, THREE MURDER MYSTERIES is made up of three wonderful short stories from the beginnings of the genre in Australia.