ISBN: 9781596880917
This is the first collection of 12 stories featuring G.K. Chesterton’s unassuming East Anglican priest detective who, in the early decades of the 20th century, was as popular a detective as Athur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Based on an Irish priest, John O’Connor, Father Brown tends to be underestimated and then astounds with his sharp observations and clever insights. This collection includes “The Blue Cross,” the inspiration for the film, The Detective (1954), with Alec Guiness playing Father Brown.
The twelve stories in this collection include:
1. The Blue Cross, p. 1
2. The Secret Garden, p. 26
3. The Queer Feet, p. 53
4. The Flying Stars, p. 78
5. The Invisible Man, p. 97
6. The Honour of Israel Gow, p. 120
7. The Wrong Shape, p. 139
8. The Sins of Prince Saradine, p. 164
9. The Hammer of God, p. 189
10. The Eye of Apollo, p. 211
11. The Sign of the Broken Sword, p. 232
12. The Three Tools of Death, p. 255
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) established himself as a controversial journalist before he began writing fiction in 1904. His best known character is Father Brown, a quiet and unassuming Catholic priest-detective, whom he immortalized in several volumes of short stories. Chesterton also wrote poetry and literary criticism and was a lifelong friend of essayist and poet Hilaire Belloc.