Favorite Father Brown Stories Book

Chesterton's Father Brown character is a Catholic priest who has a deep appreciation of human nature and an uncanny ability to unravel puzzles related to its worst sins, all while remaining unflappable. This edition by Dover includes six stories from different collections, so there is a bit of disconnect when the villain in the first becomes Father Brown's companion and friend in the second.(Presumably this is explain in another story that's not included in the collection.)

The Father Brown stories aren't mysteries, at least not in the form that modern readers are used to (and since I don't generally read mysteries, I base this on a vague understanding of the genre rather than experience). For instance, the point of view of the stories is a very limited omniscient that occasionally descends into Father Brown's head. In this way, Chesterton leaves all the discovery to Father Brown as well as all the explanation. Only at the end of each story do we even know what the crime is, but we finish it satisfied that Father Brown was never stumped by each odd, perplexing situation.

Perhaps it's his Victorian roots, but Chesterton has a deft way with atmosphere in these stories. Without ever introducing trolls or magic, he nevertheless transports his reader into strange worlds hidden in plain sight, leaving an eerie, shivery sense that the reader has brushed up against evil. It's no wonder that Neil Gaiman quotes him in his prescript to his novel Coraline. Short, rather dumpy Father Brown never fails to bring the reader through these worlds and out to safety.