The Secret of Father Brown

Father Brown #4

by G.K. Chesterton

Father Brown, an unassuming and shabbily dressed priest, possesses an incredible ability to solve crimes and murders. Here he reveals the secret of his success. He discovers the culprit by imagining himself to be inside the mind of the criminal. This fourth collection of Father Brown stories contains the magnificent ‘The Chief Mourner of Marne’—a fascinating story with unexpected twists—about a duel and a case of mistaken identity.

Contents: The secret of Father Brown — The mirror of the magistrate — The man with two beards — The song of the flying fish — The actor and the alibi — The vanishing of Vaudrey — The worst crime in the world — The Red Moon of Meru — The chief mourner of Marne — The secret of Flambeau

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

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

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.