The Queer Feet: A Father Brown Mystery

Father Brown

by G.K. Chesterton

Librarian's note: this entry is for the story "The Queer Feet." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere.

The Vernon Hotel has been the host for an annual dinner of a mixed collection of gentlemen called "The Twelve True Fishermen" for more than a decade. They wear green jackets and have an unusual reason for the colour - to avoid being mistaken for waiters, specifically the black-jacketed ones at their Vernon Hotel dinner. There's a criminal story behind the colour differentiation and a little priest, Father Brown, was involved. Deeply involved. (less)

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Crime, Audiobook, British Literature

17 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1910

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

[Francesc · Rating 3 out of 5]

El Padre Brown resuelve un caso más que parecía imposible a través de su pensamiento deductivo. En concreto, durante una reunión muy exclusiva hay un robo. El Padre Brown se encuentra allí por casualidad y escucha una serie de pasos que le parecen sospechosos.
Una historia más del entrañable Padre Brown que ideó Chesterton.

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Father Brown solves yet another seemingly impossible case through his deductive thinking. Specifically, during a very exclusive meeting there is a robbery. Father Brown finds himself there by chance and hears a series of footsteps that seem suspicious to him.
Yet another of Chesterton's endearing Father Brown stories.

[Diamond Cowboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will give a full review at a later date.

[Jack Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. Where's the crime? For much of the story we are following the narrator's description of Father Brown as he listens to footsteps up and down the adjacent corridor in the Vernon Hotel. He is locked, voluntarily, in a small room on the main floor of the hotel doing work on a report he must complete for the Church. The unique footsteps of a person in the corridor attract his attention, at one moment fast, and at another, slow and deliberate. He's certain they belong to a gentleman. My copy is from the BBC's "The Complete Father Brown Stories" of 2013, but the story first saw the light of day in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1910. As we begin to wonder about anything criminal, a glimmer appears. There's always a touch of humour with Chesterton; Brown's room connects to the cloakroom and, at one point, our priest is serving as the hotel's cloakroom attendant! His customer? Flambeau. Ahh. Is a robbery happening? A murder too? Flambeau is nothing if not an intelligent criminal. He has noticed that the guests gathered for the annual dinner of the Twelve True Fishermen are dressed in evening wear, just like the fifteen waiters. And the club's cutlery is solid silver. (February 2021)

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good mystery, if a little bit of a stretch. But Chesterton's mysteries were more about the theology behind the plot than the actual mystery.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC RAdio 4 Extra:
Death and theft in a small hotel, and confusion over waiters. Andrew Sachs stars as GK Chesterton's insightful clerical sleuth.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be my favorite of all the Father Brown stories. The story is set in Belgravia in a very exclusive (fictional) hotel where a group of gentlemen called The Twelve True Fishermen have an annual dinner. There are a number of real-life, très expensive hotels in that extremely posh area of London which I explored via Google Maps (the Berkeley, the Emory, the Wellesley, the Lanesborough, the Peninsula, the Cadogan, etc.) and that enhanced the atmosphere of the story.

The hotel’s chef prepares an abundance of gourmet dishes featuring fish and the diners use a special set of silver fish knives and forks, each of which is inlaid with a large pearl.

Father Brown is present at the hotel only because one of the waiters had a stroke and requested a priest. After seeing the fatally stricken waiter and administering last rites, he asks if he can be taken to a private office to write a note on behalf of the waiter. While in a tiny hole of an office he hears very odd footsteps - a series of running steps followed by slow, regular ones.

Father Brown has solved a very unique robbery before anyone else even knows a crime has been committed. Or, as Chesterton puts it: “… he had averted a crime and, perhaps, saved a soul, merely by listening to a few footsteps in a passage.”

[Erik Wennermark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic biting social commentary. Certainly a precursor to Columbo.

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

More political parable than mystery.

[Sapphire Detective · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the subversion before, we're back to another Flambeau story. And I know the next story is too, I'm not looking forward to it as much. I like Flambeau but with how many stories appear here, he kind of bores me a bit. I think the deduction here is a bit of a stretch too, though we're definitely closing in on the Brown that I'm expecting more, the looking at a strange thing and saying "why?" Not the best though.

My rating: 3.5/5 (rounded down)
Would I own/re-read?: No.
TW: No trigger warnings in this one, as far as I remember.
Does the animal die?: No animals die because of queer feet (possibly the strangest way I've phrased this segment.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A man has died. But there's really no mystery in that. His heart failed, that's all. But when Father Brown goes into a private room to write down the man's final confession, he is distracted by the strange way in which someone is walking outside his door. From the gait of the queer feet, he discovers that a nefarious plot is most definitely afoot."

[Jeffrey Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father Brown is a likeable monk who has the vigor Little John in the Robin Hood stories, combined with the intellect of Sherlock Holmes. I liked this "locked room mystery" and intend to read more of Chesterton's stories. And he doesn't have queer feet, but he certainly can use his intuition in solving a strange crime by merely hearing some wierd footsteps!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Or how Father Brown solves a crime by listening and interpreting a set of footsteps. As the Vernon Hotel hosts a dinner for The Twelve True Fishermen, a crime is committed, and then solved by Father Brown.
Though most of the story seemed to be leading up to the crime, it was an interesting enough tale.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems that everything I read lately is about the difference between the classes and the delusions that are self perpetuating.
Very cute and Sherlock Holmes Like.

[Kassady · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning dragged on about minor details that weren't really all that necissary for the story. But it was entertaining nontheless.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, simple, yet impressive mystery.

[Nandan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, bit like Sherlock Holmes with tad more classical description and character building.

[Gloriamarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Father Brown stories... one loves them or one doesn't. I've loved them for decades.

[Chels Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiny bit too fast with no intrigue or anything. All too much about the Fishers

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story has cunning, theft and a healthy dose of redemption.
You gotta love father Brown!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
the story itself was a 4/5, but chesterton’s excellent writing and fucking amazing social commentary bump the story up to a 4.5

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manners Movement and Mischief
The Queer Feet is a compact Chestertonian exercise in wit and observation: a charming conceit wrapped in genteel ritual, and a reminder that small details—etiquette, footsteps, the rhythm of public life—can be the most revealing clues of all. I gave it three stars because the story delights in its cleverness and Father Brown’s low-key perspicacity, even as it keeps the emotional temperature modest. Chesterton stages the mystery among ceremonious gourmands and clubly manners, and the central device—where sound and propriety supply the crucial evidence—works as a neat demonstration of his deductive philosophy. The downside is that once the trick is perceived, some of the suspense slips away; the tale is more intellectual parlor game than gutting revelation. The pleasure here comes from the craft of noticing: Chesterton teaches the reader how to look and listen, and Father Brown’s triumph is moral as much as intellectual. It’s best enjoyed as a witty interlude or palate cleanser rather than a heavyweight entry in the canon.

[Zen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another boring tale about how Father Bruin figures it out.

Mind you, I found the analysis of the footsteps in this one a lot more believable than usual for a Father Bruin story. Mind you, you don't need a religious insight into the criminal mind to figure this one out. Only an understanding of the common labour practices of waiters.

And I liked the insight into the prejudices of upper class white males in England at the time, in regards to their attitudes towards working class waiters, which still actually holds true to some extent today.

As usual though, the story is handicapped by a cast of dull, bland characters and a priest detective who is probably the most boring character ever created in the history of detective fiction.

And, as also usual, the story moves at the pace of a dead snail. GLC sure could use a good editor.

[R.H. Naranjo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este pequeño cuento del Padre Brown es, en mi opinión, aún más interesante que los últimos dos. Me fascina el modo en que Chesterton enfoca a su personaje, distinguiéndolo de otros grandes detectives como Holmes o Poirot. Brown es, primero, sacerdote y, después, detective. Su interés primordial no es atrapar al criminal: es conseguir su redención. Aunque muchos de los detalles nunca se revelan (pues están protegidos por el sello de la confesión), el cuento se presenta como sumamente interesante, uniendo de una manera increíble la dimensión del detective con la Sacramental.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pareciera que la resolución de este misterio, y de hecho su planteo, dependen enteramente de la distinction de clases propia de la Inglaterra eduardiana.

Cuento #3 de El candor del padre Brown

Anterior: “The Secret Garden”

Siguiente: “The Flying Stars”

[Miss Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Demasiados pasos, demasiados pasillos y demasiado pudín de pescado

[Ray LaManna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? Chesterton picked this short story as his best for a Faber & Faber anthology...and I agree.

[Drasko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short story and biting social commentary. Interesting how author points that crime was committed because of perverse social relationships and only 3 persons picked that up.

[Bud Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

One in a series of Father Brown mysteries. Mildly entertaining. Perhaps I'll watch an episode on PBS.

[Chels S · Rating 1 out of 5]

A con artist Anglican/Occultist author writing a Catholic priest, making him the most obnoxious, Liberally suspect character.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy the Father Brown mystery series on DVD or streaming, but do not really enjoy the individual stories because there are no entertaining ancillary characters. Kristi & Abby Tabby