G.K. Chesterton

Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English novelist G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature. Chesterton loosely based the character on the Rt Rev. Msgr. John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. Includes a biographical introduction by Karl Wurf.

The Innocence of Father Brown

G. K. Chesterton

How in Tartarus, cried Flambeau, did you ever hear of the spiked bracelet? -- Oh, one's little flock, you know said Father Brown, arching his eyebrows rather blankly. When I was a curate in Hartlepool, there were three of them with spiked bracelets. Not long after he published _Orthodoxy, _ G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, and met Father O'Connor. O'Connor had a shrewd insight to the darker side of man's nature, and a mild appearance to go with it -- and together those came together to become Chesterton's unassuming Father Brown. Chesterton loved the character, and the magazones he wrote for loved the stories. _The Innocence of Father Brown_ was the first collection of them, and it's a great lot of fun. Father Brown is a direct challenge to the conventional detective and in many ways he is more amusing and ingenious. -- Saturday Revie

Jonathan Tysick

Unlike his counterpart Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown relies more on intuition than reasoning ("Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?") which makes for an interesting twist on the detective genre. A lot of deep philosophical and theological gems are shared by the homely priest along the way.

C. J. Daley 

As far as my mystery experience goes I’ve only recently gotten into some Hercule Poirot, and most recent, Sherlock Holmes. 

I feel like this collection really lacks any guidelines and rule building for the Father Brown world. He is a practicing priest that also has a hand at detective work, but mostly he solves crime through his intuition rather than deductive work? I found that a lousy reasoning. And I’m sure in the character history there’s more to it, but it certainly wasn’t in this collection of stories. 
Not to mention most of these stories jump directly into it without anything else and more than one ends with something along the lines of, “that’s it, there’s nothing more.” It is mostly for that reason that I found these lackluster and really struggled to enjoy.

Erin 

During our first lockdown last year, Father Brown (the TV series) was my major binge-watch. I thought I'd give the original stories a try. They weren't exactly what I expected them to be, but sometimes they were pretty good. You can tell why certain changes were made for the show, and I appreciate that. Out of all the stories in this one, I think I rated just one 4 stars. The rest hovered around 2-3.5 mainly. One big change they made for the show is definitely Flambeau's role, as in the stories he's actually a friend of Father Brown's, and all the secondary characters in the show don't exist in the stories either. While I don't regret reading this, there were enough times that the stories didn't age well that made them a bit tough to want to read more of.

C Fernando Maciel 

Melissa Railey

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Father Brown's powers of detection allow him to sit beside the immortal Holmes but he is also, to quote Rufus King, 'in all senses a most pleasantly fascinating human being.' You will be enchanted by the scandalously innocent man of the cloth, with the umbrella, who exhibits such uncanny insight into ingeniously tricky human problems.

Juliana

Ryan LaFerney

Kaya

Alyssa Smeltzer

Deniz Erkaradağ

Satty

Rjyan C Kidwell

Lizzy Grayson

Carol Jackson

Amanda Wells

Pam Sartain

Alba M. C.

Mariana Miralles

Father Brown is the most unlikely detective - a short, round-faced priest who is modest and kind. However, he has an astonishing insight into the criminal mind. It is through his astute wisdom that he solves the twelve cases. Read The Blue Cross and find out how Father Brown helps to catch the famous French criminal, Flambeau, who later becomes a most incongruous friend.

The Innocence of Father Brown

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