The Innocence of Father Brown / GK Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown
by GK Chesterton

mystery

copyright 1911
read in January 2015

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

Five Father Brown novels all published in one volume. Is this a major resurgence of interest in GK Chesterton ? No... it's the result of a new TV series of Father Brown...

I read the very first story (each book is a series of short stories)... I read the first, many, many years ago. I remembered a few key incidents. I remembered enjoying the story...

I enjoyed it this time, too.

Each story is relatively simple. Not simple in plot -- the clues and red herrings are as complex as you would expect... Oh, perhaps I should mention... Farther Brown solves crimes. Following clues. Just like Sherlock Holmes.

Each story is just a narrow view on the world. A focus on the mystery. Very little background, almost every word is essential to understanding and solving the crime.

I did manage to solve some of the mysteries. Never the entire plot ! But enough to satisfy my need to believe that the reader could, in fact, solve the crime...

Traditional mysteries leave me cold. It seems to me, that the red herrings are just as likely as the stated solution... The only reason that a particular clue is a red herring is that the author has selected another, equally likely set of clues to be the truth...

Father Brown stories leave me feeling that the solution is, in fact, the best and only solution.

Several of the stories also have mystic musings. There is often a feeling, amongst the characters, of moral outrage tempered by forgiveness. Not surprising, since the detective is a priest !

I enjoyed the first book of stories. Perhaps I'll read another book, in a year or two. It was fun but not enough fun to want to bury myself in another dozen short stories.

It's an enjoyable book, with well thought out mysteries. If you're a fan of...

I almost wrote, a fan of whodunits... Which made me think... As often as not, Father Brown is solving the mystery of *why*dunit.

For me it was an enjoyable way to pass the time. If you enjoy mysteries, you should rate this book a little higher.

"If he had a mind, there was something on it." PG Wodehouse, of a troubled Pongo Twistleton

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