Eighteen Father Brown stories. One of the problems many modern mystery writers have is that by setting their murders in a specific community it leads one to believe it a dangerous place. In the same way crime follows Father Brown wherever he goes. I love the way Chesterton writes; he can go from serious to breezy ebullience in one sentence. On the other hand, he is often quite long-winded.

A good line from The Secret Garden: "As a soldier, he loathed all this secretive carnage; where were these extravagant amputations going to stop? First one head was hacked off, and then another; in this case (he told himself bitterly) it was not true that two heads were better than one." ( )

I already have copies of "The Incredulity" and "The Innocence" of Father Brown so was glad to find additional stories from "The Wisdom", "The Secret" and "The Scandal" in this volume, which contains 18 stories and should not be confused with The Complete Father Brown.
Once again Chesterton's hero solves the mysteries with modesty and compassion and reminds us never to overlook even the most humble individual. My favourite quote: "To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it" (from "The Paradise of Thieves"). ( )

Women don't quite exist for G.K. Chesterton. I'm was puzzled that so many of the villians suicided. It seemed very cruel of Chesterton to deny his villains any forgiveness at all. ( )

Quite entertaining, but not as good as Sherlock Holmes. ( )

I partially enjoyed reading these 17 stories. Some of them seemed unusually slow and hard to get into. One reason for that is Chesterton’s careful development and description of scenes. He wanted the reader to really imagine where the story is taking place. In some cases, this helped draw me in the setting, but other times it distracted me: I suppose I’m so used to fast-moving action in fiction that the slow-pace distracted me. The other reason for the feeling of slowness was Father Brown nature: he is a character-interpreter. Father Brown wants to discuss with the other characters why people do what they do. This gives the stories a feeling of “telling” rather than showing that sometimes seemed excessive.

On the other hand, these stories were clever. It always amazes me when I read a story or a novel in which human nature is such an imperative part of the plot. How did Chesterton so accurately interpret motives, especially in the stories dealing with murder? I found these stories intriguing.

More thoughts on my blog