The Scandal of Father Brown

I've been a mystery addict since I was 13, when I encountered "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", but for some reason I had never read any of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. I recently found "The Scandal of Father Brown" in my local library. I've been eagerly devouring these stories, although paradoxically I don't want the book to end! Father Brown is a small, unassuming figure, who peers at the world through "moonlike spectables". His appearance belies his intellect: as one character states, he could have been a detective instead of a priest. His observational skills and keen insight into human behavior allow him to solve even the most intractable problems. Father Brown may draw comparison to other Golden Sleuths, such as Hercule Poirot, but there is one major difference: G.K. Chesterton's rich sense of humor pervades every tale. The stories aren't "funny" in the Wodehouse sense, but they display a definite appreciation of life and sense of the absurb. Read this book! You'll be very happy you did.

Chesterton again allows us to accompany Father Brown, preternaturally-unbiased master of human nature, as he stumbles across another series of murders and mysteries. These stories in this series are not as compact as those in other books, notably "The Innocence of Father Brown," but they have the same magnetic power to draw the reader in. As ever, Chesterton is interested not only in delivering first rate detective stories, but of describing human nature. His characters are flawed and biased, all blind in their own way, which is what makes it so difficult to see the truth that lies before them. Father Brown, ever kind and imperturbable, nearly always sees right through to the heart of the matter. Posing as a humble parish priest, which he is, he somehow sees beyond the class boundaries which it is Chesterton's special gift to point out and puncture. Not all the stories are murder mysteries. "The Scandal of Father Brown" is about a man in pursuit of an errant wife; and "The Insoluble Problem" is about crime, but not the one Brown is called to investigate. In all of his stories, would-be detectives, constables, lovers, actors, academics and men of means cross paths in ways that are befuddling to all but the dumpy little priest in the round spectacles. Listening to this collection was a wonderful way to pass several long commutes. In the version I heard, BTW, reader Tom Whitworth did a great job with one exception. He evidently did not realize that Flambeau is a Frenchman!