The Innocence of Father Brown

Rating:
Summary: The Innocence of Father Brown
Review: I know it's a "classic collection", but after reading it, I have to wonder what all the fuss is about. I mean, do all the really worthy Father Brown stories come later, and we all praise these early ones out of misplaced fondness?

First, I'm left wondering: Who was that little man? Does he have a personality? Who was that little man who likes to show up at bizarre British crime scenes and make enigmatic statements after figuring everything out in two seconds? This is one shadowy, slippery great detective. Why did Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe ever work so hard to establish such memorable, multi-faceted personalities? It would seem that's a lot of bother for nothing; just be like Father Brown, the cipher, fading in and out once in a while.

Cruel to pick on the Great Detective? Then let's talk about the plots, the cases, the whodunits. A more contrived, improbable collection of rummy circumstances, somehow resulting in ultimately unexciting deaths, I have never seen. And this so-called "locked-room" classic--'The Invisible Man'--well, in the real world, wouldn't one of the four witnesses keeping an eye on the scene in question at least mention the presence of a certain person, even if they didn't actually infer hostile intentions on the part of the so-called "invisible man"? That's all I can say: I wouldn't want to spoil this dull story for you.

The better entries: 'The Wrong Shape', The Sign of the Broken Sword', 'The Sins of Prince Saradine'--where I suppose the unfolding logic seems slightly less contrived than usual--and especially 'The Honour of Israel Gow', which at least had some authentic creepiness, and a solution that related to one man's idea of promises kept.

As for any wonderful spiritual significance these stories are supposed to display...yes, I'm aware they starred a wise priest.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting for a train......?
Review: In recent weeks I have suffered from the rail conditions in South East England. I might have gone mad if not for this book (and a few others, of course). Each story was like getting involved in a cryptic crossword. The stories are weird, wonderful, sometimes quite horrific but always enthralling, and they keep you guessing till the end.

I had really enjoyed 'The Club of Queer Trades', and found 'Father Brown' had the same typically Chesterton style.

Father Brown reveals the dark side of human nature and revels in the unusual and fantastic. I only wish there were more stories.

Does anyone else write like this?

Rating:
Summary: Introducing Father Brown
Review: The 12 stories herein can of course be found in THE COMPLETE FATHER BROWN, and THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN. This is the first Brown collection, which introduces not only Father Brown himself but Flambeau, the daring thief. Father Brown worked on Flambeau during their early confrontations, and eventually persuaded him to give up his life of crime. He became Father Brown's friend and sometime sidekick, and appears in three-quarters of the stories herein, in one capacity or another.

"The Blue Cross" - The great detective Valentin knows that Flambeau the thief has selected a little English priest as his target, since the priest has been entrusted with a valuable cross set with sapphires. But when Valentin begins tracking the priest across the city, a very odd pattern of incidents begins to emerge.

"The Secret Garden" - Father Brown is a dinner guest in Valentin's home.

"The Queer Feet" - 'The Twelve True Fishermen', meeting for their annual fish dinner at a small, exclusive restaurant, saw the usual count of waiters - but one had died hours before! Father Brown (called in earlier for the waiter's dying confession and last rites) unravels a spectacular caper.

"The Flying Stars" - Flambeau's last crime (as noted in the 1st paragraph of the story), cited as an example of his love of artistically matching settings with crimes. His confrontation with Father Brown resonates nicely with the preceding story's metaphor of Brown having him on a line like a fish.

"The Invisible Man" - Locked-room mystery. The inventor was found murdered in his flat, but witnesses say that nobody could have gone past them without being seen.

"The Honour of Israel Gow" - This story actually takes place *after* "The Wrong Shape". The Earl of Glengyle was a hermit - and after finding some very odd circumstances in the Earl's home after his death, Flambeau and Father Brown begin to fear that Satanism is involved.

"The Wrong Shape" - The writer was a bad husband and an unpleasant man, and the beautifully penned suicide note seemed almost too good to be true.

"The Sins of Prince Saradine" - Flambeau takes Father Brown along to collect on the prince's invitation, sent to him during his criminal career, to visit if he were to become respectable, since he greatly admired Flambeau's stunt of once arranging for one policeman to arrest another, when both were looking for *him*.

"The Hammer of God" - The last two Bohuns are the curate, who pursues the beauty of his church, and the colonel, who chases women. But if he managed to catch the blacksmith's wife, it may well have been the death of him.

"The Eye of Apollo" - Locked-room mystery. Father Brown came to visit Flambeau, who has taken an office in a new building. Pauline Stacey, a rich idealist in a neighbouring office, fell down the empty elevator shaft that same day - when nobody else, apparently, was in the building.

"The Sign of the Broken Sword" - Why has Father Brown taken Flambeau to every monument to the memory of the great general, finally ending here at his grave? "Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In a forest." Someone, unfortunately, once took that saying to heart.

"The Three Tools of Death" - With three weapons visible on the scene, why did the victim die by a fall from a window?

Rating:
Summary: Introducing Father Brown
Review: The 12 stories herein can of course be found in _The Complete Father Brown_, and _The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown_. This is the first Brown collection, which introduces not only Father Brown himself but Flambeau, the daring thief. Father Brown worked on Flambeau during their early confrontations, and eventually persuaded him to give up his life of crime. He became Father Brown's friend and sometime sidekick, and appears in three-quarters of the stories herein, in one capacity or another.

"The Blue Cross" - The great detective Valentin knows that Flambeau the thief has selected a little English priest as his target, since the priest has been entrusted with a valuable cross set with sapphires. But when Valentin begins tracking the priest across the city, a very odd pattern of incidents begins to emerge.

"The Secret Garden" - Father Brown is a dinner guest in Valentin's home.

"The Queer Feet" - 'The Twelve True Fishermen', meeting for their annual fish dinner at a small, exclusive restaurant, saw the usual count of waiters - but one had died hours before! Father Brown (called in earlier for the waiter's dying confession and last rites) unravels a spectacular caper.

"The Flying Stars" - Flambeau's last crime (as noted in the 1st paragraph of the story), cited as an example of his love of artistically matching settings with crimes. His confrontation with Father Brown resonates nicely with the preceding story's metaphor of Brown having him on a line like a fish.

"The Invisible Man" - Locked-room mystery. The inventor was found murdered in his flat, but witnesses say that nobody could have gone past them without being seen.

"The Honour of Israel Gow" - This story actually takes place *after* "The Wrong Shape". The Earl of Glengyle was a hermit - and after finding some very odd circumstances in the Earl's home after his death, Flambeau and Father Brown begin to fear that Satanism is involved.

"The Wrong Shape" - The writer was a bad husband and an unpleasant man, and the beautifully penned suicide note seemed almost too good to be true.

"The Sins of Prince Saradine" - Flambeau takes Father Brown along to collect on the prince's invitation, sent to him during his criminal career, to visit if he were to become respectable, since he greatly admired Flambeau's stunt of once arranging for one policeman to arrest another, when both were looking for *him*.

"The Hammer of God" - The last two Bohuns are the curate, who pursues the beauty of his church, and the colonel, who chases women. But if he managed to catch the blacksmith's wife, it may well have been the death of him.

"The Eye of Apollo" - Locked-room mystery. Father Brown came to visit Flambeau, who has taken an office in a new building. Pauline Stacey, a rich idealist in a neighbouring office, fell down the empty elevator shaft that same day - when nobody else, apparently, was in the building.

"The Sign of the Broken Sword" - Why has Father Brown taken Flambeau to every monument to the memory of the great general, finally ending here at his grave? "Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In a forest." Someone, unfortunately, once took that saying to heart.

"The Three Tools of Death" - With three weapons visible on the scene, why did the victim die by a fall from a window?