Father Brown Complete Murder Mysteries: The Innocence of Father Brown, The Wisdom of Father Brown, The Donnington Affair…

I like the fantasy of a quiet English village. I like emerging stories about the characters. For instance, Father Brown interests me more now that I know about his service in The Great War. The writing is uneven, sometimes relying on tired clichés, other times strong. Eventually I got tired of the series and removed it from my iPad, where I felt it took up too much storage space.

I enjoy reading books by G.K. Chesterton, but this kind of writing is not for everybody. I switch between reading and listening. The way it was narrated it was easy listening.

These are the original Father Brown short stories that first started appearing a hundred years ago. They bear very little resemblance to the television series of the same name, Father Brown and Flambeau are the only characters from that series to appear in these stories, and even they have marked differences between the two series. Also these stories are very much products of their time and are quite racist by 21st century standards.So why bother to read these stories at all? They are clever little puzzles, and even though they are slow paced by today's standards most are worth the effort to wade through. In these stories Father Brown is a world traveler, and pops up in all sorts of exotic locales. His talent for observation and drawing conclusions from the smallest of details in order to bring justice is still present as is his gentle, loving personality.If you enjoy reading vintage mysteries from the Golden Age, such as the early Ellery Queens, Agatha Christies, Dorothy Sayers etc then try these. If you are looking for the TV incarnation though you might want to give these a miss.

I'd only seen a few episodes of the TV series, and realized that the stories came first, so not much of a surprise to me. These remind me of the Encyclopedia Brown mystery stories from childhood - very short stories with rather quick, intelligent solutions by the protagonist.

Somebody, somewhere was confused. I thought GK Chesterton was an old male member of the literary pantheon but some comment on his books somewhere included a photo of a contemporary looking woman with the strong presumption that this was a photo of the author. I don't think the photo was of JK Rowling either but it looked more like her than like GK Chesterton.Amazon should consider revising their book product review format - a book really needs two ratings: content and edition. All the content reviews could be lumped together but each edition should be linked to corresponding reviews; I've seen numerous book product reviews which seem to refer to differing editions linked to a particular edition. Seems like an obvious idea to me? As for the title of my review I'm not sure -- these stories seem like they would have been ironic even given their time of writing, as if Chesterton was poking fun at the detective genre -- I mean surely, even in the 1920's, finding a corpse in the garden and locking everybody in your house party in until the mystery is solved seems a bit more suited to a past century? Whatever the author's intent I found this story was bouncing around so uncomfortably within the boundaries of the willing suspension of disbelief that I did not proceed to the third story and wrote off my $2.50 investment as returning less than an hour of somewhat pleasant reading... which still makes it a decent value as entertainment and at least did not require me to dispose of a paper volume.

A highly recommended reading. Filled with wisdom and moral lessons. Each mystery story filled with intrigue and excitement. The writer is commended in the the compilation of this book.

I enjoyed the first half of this book. I had read only one father Brown story before, so there was a great deal of novelty to absorb. However, the plots eventually began to become repetitious and much less interesting. The author's constant philosophising, something rarely found in crime stories, that had at first seemed so intellectual, also lost its flavor, becoming simply incoherent. The humble, self-effacing Father Brown was often able to solve crimes by comprehending motives and the inner lives of victims and perpetrators through interpreting tiny details overlooked by others, a method that is most sensible and understandable. At other times, however, he somehow acquired information or insight mysteriously, leaving the reader to wonder how in the world he reached his conclusions, which were unfailingly correct. Less confusing philosophising and more attention to how Father Brown was so remarkably successful would have improved the narratives.

The Father Brown mystery series, written by Chesterton, is a relatively relaxed but intense search for the truth behind a crime. In my view, the books outstrip the PBS series but, if strapped for time, the series will provide the viewer with a glimpse of Brown's detective talents, as well as his personality. When comparing Chesterton's Father Brown with Caleb Carr's characters, one feels like one is reading two different genres. Both satisfy the mystery reader, just in different ways.

Le père Brown fait partie de ces détectives si célèbres, comme Dupin, Holmes, Rouletabille, Poirot, Maigret, Wolfe, qu’on finirait par croire qu’ils ont existé (autrement que dans l’esprit de l’auteur et de ses lecteurs). C’est un sous-genre du policier, initié par Poe et qui a connu depuis un succès écrasant, et qui le connaît toujours, au moins dans notre partie du monde. Ce sont en effet des histoires agréables par leur mystère ludique -- une énigme à résoudre par le lecteur -- des ingrédients peu nombreux mais clairement répertoriés et leur lecture facile : la structure est en effet toujours la même, à quelques micro variations près. L’énigme peut se résumer par l’expression anglaise : whodunit ? qui a commis le crime ?Les récits du Père Brown ne sont pas des exceptions à cette règle. Leur singularité vient du fait qu'il s'occupent aussi beaucoup du comment en plus du qui et surtout qu’ils tirent davantage vers le fantastique, comme ceux de leur inspirateur Poe, qu’il n’est de coutume dans ce domaine. Néanmoins, pas plus que chez l’Américain, il ne s’agit d’un fantastique au sens français du terme, où le surnaturel fait irruption dans la mécanique apparemment bien ordonnée et indéraillable du quotidien. Tous les mystères impossibles se révèlent au bout du compte matériellement possibles quoique souvent au moins aussi improbables dans leur solution bassement terre à terre que si l’auteur avait eu recours à la baguette de la bonne fée ou de la méchante sorcière (c’est la même vue de son mauvais profil). Les seuls auteurs de « mystery stories » mémorables que je connaisse à avoir réellement eu recours à des solutions fantastiques sont deux écrivains de science-fiction, Jack Vance avec son détective des étoiles Magnus Ridolph, et le meilleur de tous à mon avis, Gene Wolfe, en particulier avec ses pastiches incroyables d’imagination et de drôlerie de Sherlock Holmes, du docteur Watson et de l’énorme "héros" de Stout, Nero de son prénom. Dans les récits policiers du Père Brown, qu'on pourrait appeler plus véridiquement des fantaisies, le fantastique est entièrement dans l’atmosphère, l’exotisme, les psychologies excentriques, les décors recherchés, les accessoires les plus improbables.Le défaut principal de Chesterton est sa tendance à l’arbitraire, péché capital pour un écrivain de fiction. Disons qu’il est le genre à faire neiger en juin (en Angleterre) ou à faire se lever deux fois le soleil dans la même journée si l’intrigue ou simplement son sens esthétique très exigeant le réclame. Disons-le, on a parfois l’impression d’être dans des décors de carton-pâte et sous les projecteurs d’un chef éclairagiste. Mais dans l’ensemble, pour ses récits du Père Brown, Chesterton parvient à se contenir et leur fantaisie ne me semble pas excéder les frontières très cadrées du genre quoique s’en approchant très près (si vous aimez la haute fantaisie, la plus débridée, essayez son roman à énigme <b>The Man Who Was Thursday</b> et vous verrez la différence, mais bon, je vous aurais prévenus…)Au final, les histoires du Père Brown, sont à coup sûr divertissantes, séduisantes, surprenantes, surtout dans leur mise en place particulièrement ingénieuse; leur qualité s'érode un peu au fur et à mesure des volumes et des années mais c’est la loi inévitable du genre. Et pour ce qui est du détective excentrique, plus anglais que les Anglais, Brown est tout de même plus sympathique que Poirot.Ma note est donc trois étoiles trois quarts (soyons précis).

Vintage crime

L'avevo preso in ricordo degli studi d'inglese di quando avevo 18 anni, dove dopo 65 anni ancora ricordo la differenza fra coronel e kernel, pronunciati praticamente allo stesso modo. Ma non ho avuto il coraggio di rileggerli, la vita è troppo breve per letture non entusiasmanti.

There is a lot to read in this book.

Good read