Preface

As the biographer of Chelsea Bunn, the world famous hairdresser and detective, I am inevitably privy to information which, were it to enter the public domain, would rock nations and cause empires to tremble. You will understand, therefore, the solemn duty of discretion which must seal my lips and still my pen at certain moments in the narratives which I shall shortly lay before your eyes.

If, from time to time, I introduce a name or a location which is at variance with the truth of the events themselves, I trust that you will forgive me. Such fabrications, I assure you, will be slight and they will have no bearing upon the drama of the momentous events which I shall unfold.

There can be no doubt that the career of Chelsea Bunn is uniquely dramatic and remarkable. That she should have gained world renown in the unforgivingly competitive world of hairdressing is, in itself, an extraordinary accomplishment; that she should also have risen to the apex of excellence in the arts of criminal detection is an accomplishment unparalleled in modern times.

It is with due humility, then, that I offer such small talents as I have at my command to bring to the general public the hitherto unknown facts of some of the most extraordinary adventures from the casebook of Chelsea Bunn.

I shall commence with the one of the most extraordinary adventures of all - the Case of the Poison Kipper...