Literary characters enter the real world. A mad thief steals hats from famous people, and that quickly triggers the obvious association in the newspapers—“The Mad Hatter.” Farce? A silly joke? Maybe. But it suddenly turns into murder. The victim was a journalist who covered all the “crimes” of the Mad Hatter—and on the murdered man’s head they find a tiny pot/kettle stolen from his uncle, a well-known collector. Could it be that the Hatter has moved from harmless thefts to murder? Only Gideon Fell can answer that.