" #1 in the series of Father Brown short story collections. Father Brown is widely acclaimed as being one of the world's first true detectives. This 1911 collection contains 12 stories originally published in U.S. and British magazines in 1910 and 1911. This collection is listed in Barzun and Taylor's Classics of Crime Fiction 1900-1950. I waded through the collection but doubt very much if I shall ever read another word written by G.K. Chesterton. The mysteries are ridiculous, the characters implausible, and the deductive reasoning is impossible. Add to this the fact that Chesterton, if you can credit his written word, is a bigot, religiously intolerant, and a racist. Celebrated author Martin Gardner admires the Father Brown stories but says in the afterword to The Wrong Shape: "In my judgement this is the most unsatisfactory tale in the book. It is not just that the events are wildly implausible - all Father Brown stories are implausible - but that Dr James Harris is totally implausible." Further, about The Hammer of God: "No matter. We are in Chesterton's world of bizarre semi-fantasy where improbable events are as commonplace as improbable characters". Gardner continues about The Wrong Shape with the reason I managed to finish the book - "For me its greatest merit is in the cadences of its descriptions: the wind ' creeping up the dim garden path and shuffling the fallen leaves', and the white lightning that 'opened its enormous eye in one wink' before 'the sky shut up again'.
Father Brown series - The 12 stories is the first Brown collection, which introduces not only Father Brown himself but Flambeau, the daring thief. Father Brown worked on Flambeau during their early confrontations, and eventually persuaded him to give up his life of crime. He became Father Brown's friend and sometime sidekick, and appears in three-quarters of the stories herein, in one capacity or another.
Father Brown series - The 12 stories is the first Brown collection, which introduces not only Father Brown himself but Flambeau, the daring thief. Father Brown worked on Flambeau during their early confrontations, and eventually persuaded him to give up his life of crime. He became Father Brown's friend and sometime sidekick, and appears in three-quarters of the stories herein, in one capacity or another. "
— Mysterious, 11/8/2013