The Innocence of Father Brown

⚖The case for it

Twelve stories, twenty minutes each, and readers say Chesterton’s sentences alone justify the book whatever the puzzles do: “turn of phrase, oh my goodness.” Father Brown works by moral psychology and years in the confessional rather than by footprints, which readers like as the anti-Holmes. Each story doubles as a small essay on sin or reason without stopping being a story, and the settings range from a walled garden to a Scottish castle to a London restaurant. A recurring criminal turns up across several of the twelve, giving the collection a loose spine. “Utterly, unashamedly absurd, not too taxing.”

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Father Brown arrives at answers by intuitive leap rather than by clues you could have caught, so “cleverness is no substitute for logical sense” next to Holmes or Christie. The apologetics tilt the whole book, with “supercilious disdain for anyone from a creed other than his own” and, worse, “sanctimonious sneering reserved especially for atheists and Jews.” The racist description of an Asian servant is offensive rather than merely dated. The priest himself is thin, since “Father Brown’s character has less color than his name,” and hardened criminals repent the moment he speaks to them.

— the honest librarian

6h

honest hours

9

sittings