The Mystery of the Mad Hatter

The golden age of the detective novel gifted us many star names. The works of such writers as Agatha Christie, Gilbert Chesterton, Earl Stanley Gardner, and Rex Stout developed and refined the detective genre; their novels, unconditionally recognized as classics, remain beloved by readers to this day and serve as a benchmark of quality for subsequent generations of authors of detective stories. A prestigious place in this constellation rightfully belongs to John Dickson Carr (1906–1977) — a virtuoso master of perfectly constructed "impossible crimes in locked rooms." In 1933, in the novel "The Witch's Cave," John Dickson Carr first introduced the amateur detective Dr. Gideon Fell to the public, and in 1934, the story of his next investigation — the novel "The Mystery of the Mad Hatter" — was published. The antics of an unknown hooligan tearing hats off the heads of respectable citizens would hardly have stirred the jaded Londoners. Another matter is the corpse sprawled on the steps of the Tower with one of the missing hats on its head...