The Secret of Father Brown

While it is one of the darkest of Father Brown Chesterton's collections, it is a masterful study of perceiving the human condition, discovered by the usual impossible crimes and parade of bandits and saints - a glowing armored corpse, a thieving mystic, a tireless English aristocrat and a Canadian journalist. We are asked to solve death through a duel, gunshot, and the theft of jewels, large and small. The stories in this collection are worth reading again and again - to see how the plot unfolds and to enjoy Chesterton's gorgeous and well-informed prose. The title story includes The Mystery of Father Brown, The Judge's Mirror, The Man with Two Beards, The Flying Fish Song, The Actor and the Excuse, The Disappearance of Vaudry, The World's Worst Crime, Meru's Red Bear, and The Mother Mourner of the Marne.

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