The Scandal of Father Brown

Father Brown #5

by G.K. Chesterton

Another collection of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and "Chestertonian fantasy," or seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In the title story, a beautiful (and married) rich woman has taken up with a distinguished poet--and Father Brown, rather than reacting as expected, appears to be providing assistance. Also includes The Quick One, The Blast of the Book, The Green Man, The Pursuit of Mr Blue, The Crime of the Communist, The Point of a Pin, The Insoluble Problem, and The Vampire of the Village. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Crime, Detective, Historical Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dame Agatha and Her Peers
BOOK/Short 3
From this 1935 collection I chose the title story to review. How many people do we see, today, who are famous only for being famous? That's nothing new as Chesterton points out in this short. 'Beauty, and being the daughter of a rich man, are things not rare in her country [America]; but to these she added whatever it is that attracts the wandering eye of journalism. It was...the modern substitute for mythology."
CAST = 4 stars: We have Father Brown whose been often presented in numerous publications. He likes to watch, observe, comment. Here, he watches Hypatia Potter (the beauty from above) rule over a resort in Mexico, a temporary Queen of the Media. Then we have her lover (maybe), Rudel Romanes, "the poet whose works had been so universally popularized by being vetoed by libraries or prosecuted by the police." Then there is the journalist Agar P. Rock who hates with a 'holy and righteous hatred' from his position on the Minneapolois Meteor. Rock is indeed a hateful person himself, and I'll spare those reading this review his racist and xenophobic comments. Then there is Mr. Potter who is only the husband of Hypatia. Chesterton does a very good job with just Brown and 3 characters: the author's social comments and awareness are oddly prescient in 2019, 80+ years after this work was written. A truly memorable cast.
ATMOSPHERE = 2 stars: We have a resort for those with money but little else, and that's odd for an author writing during the Golden Age of Mystery.
PLOT = 3 stars: Will Hypatia leave her husband for the famous, glorious, steamy hot (or not) Mexican poet/lover? Will Agar Rock's reports of the degenerate Mexicans and of Father Brown's 'scandalous actions' spread through the entire world within half an hour or so? (Yes, of course, even in the 1930s when Social Media was the telephone and newspapers.) Has anything changed about the desperate need of publicity since the 1930s? (Need you ask?) Will anyone bother with follow-up stories about what really happened in this Mexican resort. (No, of course not.) Will this scandal be changed and upped to Everest proportions in the years that follow? (Of course!)
INVESTIGATION - 2: Father Brown just sits in the lobby and reads and watches, he need ask not a single question.
SOLUTION - 3: It's very clever but says more about social issues and the need for publicity than about crime.
SUMMARY - 2.8. As a social statement, this is a very good work. But as a work of crime/detection, it's fine and solid for 3 stars here on goodreads.

[Aggeliki Spiliopoulou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι μία συλλογή 9 διηγημάτων μυστηρίου και εγκλημάτων τα οποία εξιχνιάζει με τον δικό του ορθολογιστικό τρόπο  ο πατήρ Μπράουν. Η λογική έναντι στο παράδοξο.  Κατά την εξέλιξη κάθε ιστορίας ο Τσέστερτον μέσω των χαρακτήρων παρουσιάζει απόψεις για κοινωνικά και πολιτικά θέματα, ζητήματα θεολογίας και ηθικής,  υιοθετώντας ένα σαρκαστικό στυλ γραφής και το φλεγματικό αγγλικό χιούμορ.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ουφ, ούτε 200 σελίδες και τράβηξε λες και ήταν 600+. Δεν λέω, είχε τις τοποθετήσεις του ο Τσέστερτον, πολλές από τις οποίες βρίσκω αναχρονιστικές, ξεπερασμένες και ίσως επικίνδυνες. Διαμέσου ενός αρκετά οξυδερκούς παπά που λύνει εγκληματικές υποθέσεις με ανορθόδοξους τρόπους στην αγγλική εξοχή στα 50s, τοποθετείται πάνω στις γυναίκες και την κοινωνική τους θέση (ή μάλλον την απουσία αυτής), στην θρησκεία, στην πολιτική. Δεν δογματίζει βέβαια, πρέπει να το αναγνωρίσουμε αυτό, και ο father Brown είναι ομολογουμένως μια ενδιαφέρουσα φιγούρα, ελκυστική παρότι φανταστική για κάθε φυσιογνωμιστή. Σε αυτό βοηθάει βέβαια και το πως στήνεται και παρουσιάζεται ο χαρακτήρας από τον συγγραφέα.

Κάτι όμως δεν μου κολλούσε. Η γραφή του ήταν κάπως βραδυφλεγής και ασαφής, οι ιστορίες δεν καταφέρνουν να σε βάλουν μέσα τους ούτε στιγμή, η ροή σαν έννοια δεν υφίσταται στα κείμενα ούτε κατά διάνοια. Την μία στιγμή αισθάνεσαι ότι η ανάγνωση σε στέλνει στο 24 Hours of Le Mans, την επόμενη σε ταξί στην πανεπιστημίου στις 3 το μεσημέρι κατά την διάρκεια πορείας του ΠΑΜΕ. Το λεξιλόγιο ήταν αρκετά πλούσιο χωρίς να κάνει την γλώσσα πανεπιστημιακή παρόλα αυτά.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reason Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is more famous and celebrated than G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown is that Holmes is just a more compulsive character. He is passionate, unpredictable, capable of calm observation, but also moments of high agitation. As London’s foremost consulting detective, everybody knows who he is and he always puts on a show for them, clearly taking great delight in the big reveal – like a cat which has procured the keys to a cream store. Father Brown on the other hand, is less impressive – someone you could miss in a room if there were only five of you there. A round-faced, seemingly inconsequential little priest, who will offer his solutions to the various mysteries he solves almost apologetically.

The stories reflect these personalities. In Holmes there is a sense of peril and danger; there are big dramatic moments; while in Brown there is an understated, almost academic style. Yes there are some flashes of dry humour, but in a mystery tale a sense of suspense is usually required.

And that’s why the Father Brown stories – of which this is the last volume – will never hold the place in my heart that the Sherlock Holmes tales do. There are a few startling moments (for instance an a victim found bloody and hanging in a tree) but their understated style make them a plod rather than race.

[Paradoxe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Δεν υπάρχει καμιά πιθανότητα ο Γκράχαμ Γκρην και ο Σόμερσετ Μωμ να μην είχαν διαβάσει Τσέστερτον. Αυτό όμως δυστυχώς δεν είναι κάτι περισσότερο από ένα προπαρασκευαστικό. Αρκεί όμως σε οποιονδήποτε από ‘σας ταυτόχρονα αγαπάει αυτούς τους δυο συγγραφείς για να διαβάσει Τσέστερτον. Για άλλη μια φορά το γνωστό σχήμα του φιλοσοφικού αφηγήματος με το πρόσχημα της αστυνομικής ιστορίας προκειμένου να καταγγείλει όλες τις αντιφάσεις που προκύπτουν σαν ακολουθούμε μόνο τον κανόνα της λογικής, του φαίνεσθαι και της νοοτροπίας του αφέντη. Αρνείται να δεχτεί στους ανθρώπους που ενστερνίζονται μαζί με τα θετικά και τα αρνητικά του μοντερνισμού και του δανεισμού άλλης κουλτούρας που δεν τους ταιριάζει πραγματικά, αρνείται την απολυταρχική συνείδηση, αρνείται πως ένας πρωθυπουργός αξίζει περισσότερο από ένα σερβιτόρο, προσφέρει ένα έξοχο συμπέρασμα πως ένα δωμάτιο γεμάτο όπλα είναι πιθανό να οδηγήσει στο έγκλημα όχι για τα όπλα που συγκεντρώνει αλλά γιατί δίνει τη δυνατότητα μιας άλλης σκέψης κάνοντας προσιτό το όπλο, που είναι χρήσιμο για να κυνηγάς φασιανούς, ή να κόβεις τα χόρτα όταν προχωράς σε δύσβατη φύση, αλλά σε χέρια που δεν ξέρουν να χρησιμοποιούν ούτε τον εαυτό τους θα μπορούσε να κάνει το μεγαλύτερο κακό.

Η πρώτη ιστορία ξεχωρίζει γιατί δεν είναι αστυνομική περιπέτεια, είναι ένα καθαρό κοινωνικό σχόλιο απέναντι στην εκκολαπτόμενη λαμπερή ζωή και την υποκρισία και λογική σκέψη και πονηριά που τη διακρίνει, πάνω στην ελαφρότητα των ηθών που προκαλεί σαν κυνηγάμε έστω με τη σκέψη στα κατορθώματα των άλλων φλογερά πάθη και λαγνείες, αγνοώντας πως η ζωή μπορεί να είναι και δίπλα μας. Αν έχετε μια φίλη που ξεροσταλιάζει πάνω απ’ τα περιοδικά του ενός ευρώ με τα κουτσομπολιά των διασήμων και φαντάζεται μια άλλη ζωή, συμπάσχει με τα παθήματα τους, θυμώνει, στενοχωριέται κι εσάς αυτό σας αγχώνει, σας νευριάζει που αναλώνεται σ’ αυτούς τους άσκοπους αγώνες, αξίζει να της δώσετε να διαβάσει αυτή την ιστορία. Είναι μικρούλα και αξίζει τον κόπο.

Δυστυχώς γι’ αυτό το σπουδαίο σκεπτόμενο άνθρωπο, για μια ακόμη φορά αφήνεται σε σύντομα σχόλια και σπόντες αντί να στυλώσει το βλέμμα του σε κάποια και να φτάσει την πένα του στο κόκαλο. Σε κάποιο σημείο επίσης προπαγανδίζει κατά του κομμουνισμού και στην αμέσως επόμενη σελίδα κράζει τον καπιταλισμό. Είναι πάντοτε συνεπής μέσα στην παραδοξότητα του. Ωστόσο εμένα δε μου αρκεί το σφηνάκι. Όσο κι αν δε μπορούμε να αγνοήσουμε τη διορατικότητα του όταν βάζει τον κύριο Γουάνταμ να κάνει πειράματα για τον επόμενο πόλεμο, γραμμένο το 1929. Οι ιστορίες ακόμη και με το σχήμα του αστυνομικού διηγήματος είναι διασκεδαστικές σπαζοκεφαλιές για την ώρα της χαλάρωσης. Για όσους ενδιαφέρονται για το κάτι παραπάνω, χωρίς να ψάξουν, υπάρχει εκεί, εκπληρώνει με συνέπεια το σκοπό του, αλλά στερείται βάθους.

Στοχαστής από θέση, κατήγορος από ανάγκη κάτι ν’ αλλάξει ο Τσέστερτον απλώς εξεγείρεται με τις ήρεμες παραβολές του. Κρίμα που δεν επαναστάτησε, θα είχε πάρα πολλά να πει.

[Lee]

Incomplete list of derogatory things Father Brown has been compared to across all five volumes:
- A child (almost every chapter)
- A dog
- Luggage
- A voice like a pistol shot
- Virgil
- A frog
- A rhinoceros
- An owl
- A rabbit that's been shot at
- A patient baby

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always amazed at the tiny jewels of wisdom hidden within Father Brown mysteries. Father Brown himself seems, at first glance, unassuming, dull and slow, but the kernels of wisdom and insight are there, often in "plain sight". Here is one that I found apt:

"...because the inside of our intellect has changed, because we really have a new idea of right, we shall do things you think really wrong. And they will be practical."

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the late stories about Sherlock Holmes, these late Father Brown stories don't hold up to the earlier ones except in rare cases. Most of these stories are merely all right rather than gripping and very fine like the first three sets. There are some highlights, such as The Green Man, but most are a bit slow and not very engaging.

Father Brown continues to be brilliant and humble, even eccentric in a kindly sort of distracted way, but in several of these stories he either relies on information the reader is not party to, or leaps to conclusions which may be true, but aren't really warranted with the information at hand and only end up being demonstrated to be accurate later.

Some of the mysteries aren't even particularly mysterious, but Father Brown's handling of them is interesting. Others are only obscure because of the way the information is presented rather than objectively challenging mysteries. Overall not the best example of Father Brown stories even if they each have a moral or philosophical point worth pondering.

[Sara Shemes · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, the last book in the Father Brown series, has 3 of my favorite stories! For one of the biggest belly laughs, you get from a Father Brown mystery, you can't beat The Quick One. For absolute brilliance in convoluted facts and a big "no duh" moment, once must read The Blast of the Book. The Crime of the Communist is great for social commentary of the time and a nifty little bit of intrigue. Reading this whole series has been an absolute joy!

[Mikheil Samkharadze · Rating 3 out of 5]

განსხვავებული ტიპის დეტექტიური მოთხრობებია. სხვებისგან განსხვავებით აქ არ არის გამოძიების პროცესი. მამა ბრაუნი ხშირად დამნაშავის მიერ წარმოთქმული ერთი სიტყვით ან ერთი წინადადებით ხვდება საქმის ვითარებას. დანარჩენი კი ადამიანური ბუნებისა და ნიუანსების შესახებ საინტერესო მსჯელობაა.

[Rose]

I love Father Brown's smackdown to a racist:

"Well, there was a Dago, or possibly a Wop, called Julius Caesar. He was afterwards killed in a stabbing match; you know these Dagos always use knives. And there was another one called Augustine, who brought Christianity to our little island; and really, I don't think we should have had much civilisation without those two."

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.48 stars. It’s a fairly enjoyable read.

“He's a pretty rotten fool and failure, on his own confession.”
“Yes,” said Father Brown. “I'm rather fond of people who are fools and failures on their own confession.”
“I don't know what you mean,” snapped the other.
“Perhaps,” said Father Brown, wistfully, “it's because so many people are fools and failures without any confession.”

[James Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quality Father Brown book! Greatly enjoyed this one - all the mysteries are top-notch and written in that dreamily gorgeous prose that Chesterton executes so well. I wish Chesterton had written more of these. Chesterton's insight into the human soul and his deft exploration of universal human themes is what really makes these tales sing.

[Abandoned Asylum · Rating 1 out of 5]

რა მოსაბეზრებელი ყოფილა.

ვერაფერი ვერ გავიგე.
არც კი მიმიდევნებია ყური, სად რა ხდებოდა და მაინც დავამთავრე... 😶😑😐
აუდიოწიგნის მთხრობელი ხომ საერთოდ, კაცს ეგეთი გამაღიზიანებელი გამოთქმა ქონდეს...🤦🏻‍♀️☠️

[Raquel Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lida toda a série, a impressão é positiva.
A personagem é encantadora, mas os livros sabem a pouco. Isto de um caso por capítulo é pouco para mim.

[Els · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite so far, but still? Not a massive fan. Thus ends my Father Brown binge reading session.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here are some short detective stories to rival Agatha Christie. A wonderful book, I recommend for everyone you likes detective novels. Personally I love the way Chesterton writes.

One thing I noticed is how perfect Father Brown is. It seems that all the great detectives out there have some obvious flaw; Sherlock Holmes was a drug addict, smoker, and a rather rude, unfriendly, very arrogant person. Poirot admitted to having a major flaw in his pride. But Father Brown is humble, courteous to a fault, and complete with all the moral decencies of every good Christian priest. Plus he's a great detective with a keen eye and a poignant view of reality. This did not at all detract from the book, nor from the charming character of Father Brown... it was merely something I noticed.

[Amy Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy these mysteries, though a few of these were a bit still. Unfortunately I don’t always support Brown’s theological or philosophical ideas (sometimes he seems to take the authority of the justice system into his own hands), am not convinced of his method to reform criminals, and cannot recommend my children to listen to the audio versions I have because, although the narrator is excellent ( not always 100% on the American accent), there is a LOT of cursing in the book. My reviews of the other books would also apply here.

#LitLife 2for22Detective, Proto Inkling, Victorian Male, Favorite Author of CS Lewis

[David Gorgone · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun little read. Though I noticed a long time ago that a lot of these mystery writers have the tendancy to cheat. Usually by including things in the solution that you had no idea about because they were never mentioned. A few I figured outright. Father Brown is a pretty decent character. He seems to be able to figure things out a tad too easily without actually having to do anything to come to his conclusions. And he never seems to actually work.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished all of the Father Brown stories, a bittersweet event. The stories are great, Chesterton has wonderful prose, and his observations concerning people are insightful.

I wish there were more to read; will just have to read Chesterton's other fiction. Man Who Was Thursday was a great story.

[Tinquerbelle]

Chesterton, G.K.
The Penguin Complete Father Brown

In compilation only.

1) The Scandal of Father Brown
2) The Quick One
3) The Blast of the Book
4) The Green Man
5) The Pursuit of Mr. Blue
6) The Crime of the Communist
7) The Point of a Pin
8) The Insoluble Problem
9) The Vampire of the Village

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to Sherlock Holmes books; that's why I liked it. Father Brown is a great character!

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to rate Chesterton with only 3 stars, but this wasn't my favorite. Lord Peter is funnier. And some of these stories required a great leap of faith to solve. Just ok.

[Gloriamarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Father Brown Stories... one either loves them or not and I do.

Lecture 69: The Scandal of Father Brown
by DALE AHLQUIST
According to G.K. Chesterton, every character in a novel is only the author in disguise. We certainly have evidence of this from Chesterton’s own fiction. Indeed, one of the standard criticisms of it is that all the characters sound like Chesterton. Perhaps the thinnest disguise Chesterton ever wears in the pages of a book is when he becomes Innocent Smith in Manalive. But one of his most ingenious masquerades is when he continually squeezes himself into the clerical costume of a little priest named Brown. The amateur detective gives Chesterton a chance to make many prophetic observations to a popular audience that might not pick up one of his books or essays. And some of the priest’s asides may sound downright scandalous to the modern ear. For instance, there is the scandal of democracy, the idea that all men matter: “You matter. I matter. It’s the hardest thing in theology to believe… We matter to God – God only knows why.”

Or: “You don’t need any intellect to be an intellectual.”

Or: “Materialists as a race are rather innocent and simple-minded.”

Or: “Even the most perfectly balanced of agnostics is partly human.”

Or, chillingly: “When a madman murders a King or a President it can’t be prevented…Anybody can murder him who does not mind being a murderer.”

He is also amazingly prophetic about the American cult of celebrity, the rootlessness and barrenness of the university landscape, the puritanical control of society through health and hygiene, and the loudness of a few atheists who want “merely” to abolish God and the Ten Commandments.

But the device of talking through the beloved little Norfolk priest also gives Chesterton a chance to talk about…himself. He explains the dilemma he constantly faces when talking discussing politics with people who think there are only two sides to a political question. He reports that Father Brown, too, is drawn into political debates, “being in some sense called in on both sides.”

And as the Capitalists all reported that, to their positive knowledge, he was a Bolshevist; and as the Bolshevists all testified that he was a reactionary rigidly attached to bourgeois ideologies, it may be inferred that he talked a certain amount of sense without any appreciable effect on anybody.

Father Brown also laments on behalf of the quotable Chesterton: “I always try to say what I mean. But everybody else means such a lot by what I say.”

The Scandal of Father Brown deals with all the political and religious issues that Chesterton deals with in all his writings, the same superstitions, the same sins, the same scandals. “There’d be a lot less scandal,” says Father Brown, “if people idealize sin and pose as sinners.”

Oh, the stories? They’re great! First-rate mysteries with marvelous plots and surprising twists. Eerie crimes and surprising solutions. Chesterton prefigures the modern medical examiners when he notes that the body is the chief witness in every murder. He picks out the most unsuspicious suspects, as in any good detective yarn, but still we don’t suspect them. And then there is that amazing line from “The Blast of the Book,” where a book is described as “lying closed, but as if it had just been opened.” Hm. Still trying to imagine how a book that has just been opened looks different from a book that has only recently been opened, or perhaps opened yesterday or the day before. But never mind. You’ll be curious to find out what was in the book.

Finally, there is “The Insoluble Problem.” Chesterton’s final collection of Father Brown stories ends on a fitting note. Although he penned a couple more stories starring his famous priest-detective, it seems there is something especially artistic about “The Insoluble Problem” being the end-piece of all the tales. The story takes place earlier in Father Brown’s career and brings back his old friend, Flambeau, as a sidekick. They encounter a case where a dead man is found hanging by the neck from a tree…with a sword stuck through him.

“I was wondering,” said Flambeau, “why they should hang a man by the neck till he was dead, and then take the trouble to stick him with a sword.”

“And I was wondering,’’ said Father Brown, “why they should kill a man with a sword thrust through his heart, and then take the trouble to hang him by the neck.”

So what is the solution? The title suggests there isn’t one. But there is. And yet this is a mystery that ends with a mystery. Disappointed? Don’t be. For the lover of detective fiction, it is a sign of hope that there is always one more conundrum to be puzzled over, one more clue to be found, one more mystery to be solved. Yes, we want the solution, but we never want a good story to end.

https://www.chesterton.org/lecture-69/

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Father Brown stories underwent a change over the duration of Chesterton’s writing. Over time they became less preachy and inclined to promote a message, and begin to look more like ordinary detective stories.

However we should not over-state this change. While The Scandal of Father Brown contains fewer strident criticisms of other beliefs and non-beliefs, the book retains some of its higher aspirations, and the stories could be said to be moral ones.

The stories in the Penguin version (I believe there are other editions which change the order of the stories and finish with The Insoluble Problem) are topped and tailed with a story about a scandalous woman who is not really as scandalous as she seems. In the titular story, the scandal appears to be that Father Brown is helping a woman to cheat on her husband, when really he is helping to restore her to her husband from the man she is seeing.

The final story here is ‘The Vampire of the Village’. Like The Sussex Vampire in a famous Sherlock Holmes story, this female vampire is not a bad woman at all. Despite the gossip about her, it turns out that the real vampire is a blackmailer who has assumed another alias.

This reflects a theme of appearance and reality in the stories, where nothing is what it seems. In a way, that is not surprising, as the murder mystery relies on deceiving the reader in order to offer a surprise ending. Hence ‘The Quick One’ involves a search for a killer who is really a witness.

‘The Blast of the Book’ makes fun of superstition. Naturally being a Chesterton work, it is the agnostic who is the man most prone to accepting the idea of a curse, and not the priest. Materialists are rather simple-minded, as Chesterton argues at the beginning. As I have said in earlier reviews, Chesterton is right to note that some religious doubters do fill their minds with other spiritual nonsense, but wrong to behave as if this is always the case.

For ‘The Green Man’, a murder causes one young suitor to flee the scene, and another man with a sword to fall under suspicion, but neither is the killer, and the loss of the victim’s money actually helps two lovers to come together. Brown is accused of helping the murderer to escape, but he says instead that he has often helped murderers, but never to escape, reflecting his role as a moral leader.

‘The Pursuit of Mr Blue’ involves confusion over the identity of a body, while ‘The Insoluble Problem’ is insoluble because it is not real, and is only a front for another milder crime. ‘The Crime of the Communist’ is an interesting story. The murderer is suspected to be a communist, but the villain turns out to be an even bigger materialist (the book’s main enemy), namely a capitalist. Chesterton tended to underestimate the potential dangers of revolutionaries, as we saw in The Man Who Was Thursday.

The stories are straightforward and pleasing. There is little development in the Father Brown stories over time except that they become more oriented on the bizarre crimes and less on the moral messages, but this is not always a bad thing. While it means that there is less to say about The Scandal of Father Brown than any other Father Brown volume, it does mean that we are free to enjoy the stories without being repelled by some of Chesterton’s opinions.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Confession in the Rain: College Street, 2004

It was one of those College Street afternoons where the sky doesn’t so much weep as grieve. 2004. The streets were flooded, trams inching along like sleepy reptiles, and the second-hand book stalls covered their wares in tarpaulin sheets that flapped like restless wings. I should’ve gone home. But I didn’t. Something about rain and old books makes for dangerous magic.

That’s when I found it—The Scandal of Father Brown. The fifth and final volume. A battered little paperback, the cover faded like the memory of an old case. I had been collecting the Father Brown books like puzzle pieces scattered through years—this one was the last. The bookseller didn’t even haggle. “Take it,” he said, “this rain’s washing away my patience.”

I walked home drenched but triumphant, the book wrapped like a talisman inside my kurta. That very night, with lightning as background score and thunder as punctuation, I devoured it whole. And what a strange, unsettling, quiet climax to the Father Brown saga it was.

The cases in The Scandal were darker, lonelier. They weren’t just puzzles anymore—they were meditations. “The Chief Mourner of Marne” still haunts me: the idea that sometimes, people need to believe in guilt more than innocence to make peace with grief. Or “The Insoluble Problem,” where the impossibility of a murder becomes more important than the solution. Brown wasn’t chasing criminals anymore; he was chasing truths most people would rather not see.

And then there was that unmistakable Chesterton line, buried deep like a confessional whisper:

“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”
And Brown could joke—tenderly, wryly—even in the face of sin, betrayal, or death.

That night, I didn’t just finish a book. I finished an era in my reading life. Father Brown—the squat little priest with the umbrella and the understanding of human frailty—had been my companion through teenage doubts and moral curiosities. This book, read in one sitting, during a storm, felt like a farewell.

College Street gave me that goodbye in the rain. And like all good goodbyes, it was a little tragic, a little perfect.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first foray into Father Brown (and G.K. Chesterton, now that I think about it; owning probably doesn't count, right?

Although sometimes I had no idea what he was getting at (sometimes because of cultural references, sometimes just because I had no idea what he was getting at), and at times I didn't follow his plot and the reasoning of Father Brown, I still thoroughly enjoyed these stories. For one thing, stories are perfect because when I'm busy, as I have been of late, it's easier to put down than a traditional mystery; just stop at the end of the chapter, which is also the end of the story.

But also, Chesterton's style is fascinating; definitely literary, although I'm not sure I'd label him the very best mystery-writer, as somebody (N.T. Wright maybe?) claims, these stories are compelling, not least because of their style. However, buyer beware: much of the language is sort of antiquated, and if you don't like late-19th to early-20th -century British writing, or want things to be a little more clear, like P.D. James or Sue Grafton, you probably won't like this. But I did. And I want to read more Father Brown. I thought Chesterton's Father Brown series was novels, but it looks to me like it's all compilations of stories. Just the perfect thing to keep on hand for when I don't want to grab something that I don't have time to immerse myself in.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father Brown is an insignificant little man who ‘goes stumping with his stout umbrella through life’, but through his glasses this short-sighted cleric sees truths that escape most other people. What is the reality behind a relationship — a disappearance — a violent crime? Father Brown might make some cryptic comments but eventually will surprise his hearers with the simple truth.

When I was young, Father Brown captivated me with his paradoxical vision of the world — and I’m still a paid-up subscriber to the idea at the heart of these books that the universe is at once simple and infinitely paradoxical. Today I can still enjoy the cleverness of these stories and some of their unexpected solutions. Chesterton at his best leaves clues in plain sight to show that assumptions about people are almost always wrong. We also have to remember the endemic anti-Catholicism of his time that he here is determined to counter. But Chesterton’s own prejudices and assumptions are also at work here, ranging from the harmless but irritating to the downright problematic, and I can’t pretend that that doesn’t spoil some of these stories for me now.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of detective stories by renowned 20th Century Catholic convert and man of letters G.K. Chesterton sees his hero, the amateur sleuth/clergyman Father Brown, solve various mysteries involving missing persons and murders through the lens of a priest’s deep understanding of the human heart.

What is striking about Father Brown is not just his determination to get to the bottom of the case, but his essential compassion, being more concerned with the saving of souls and a biblical idea of justice than the more temporal form of justice through the legal system. This makes Brown a Sherlock Holmes of the spirit, and the stories are imbued with the Christian ethos.

While some of the writing and stereotypes in the stories may seem of their time, in a way that Arthur Conan Doyle’s are not, they are still enjoyable for today’s reader, with each being fast-paced and standing on its own. I particularly enjoyed the second story, ‘The Quick One’, in which Father Brown is able to not just solve a murder at a seaside hotel but prevent a serious miscarriage of justice through the use of his deep insight into human behaviour.