John Dickson Carr’s best-known for his Dr. Gideon Fell mysteries from the Golden Age of British detective fiction. The tall, corpulent Dr. Fell — closely modeled on the great G.K. Chesterton — sports pince-nez glasses on a ribbon, a cape, a shovel hat and a cane; also just like Chesterton himself, Dr. Fell has a great sense of humor and a profound forgetfulness about everyday, household matters. Unfortunately, Dr. Fell cannot compare with Chesterton’s excellent creation, Father Brown, a seemingly naïve Roman Catholic priest with a knack for solving crimes.

Carr pens a passable mystery with The Mad Hatter Mystery, the second in a long series, and I enjoyed the twist ending — but not enough to read another Dr. Fell novel. I think I’ll reread Father Brown instead.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Penzler Publishing and American Mystery Classics in exchange for an honest review.