The Wisdom of Father Brown

An invisible killer, a family curse, a voodoo cult, a murdered prince, and a stolen salad dressing. Strange events call for a detective like no other, and Father Brown has a tendency to see to the heart of things. G. K. Chesterton’s famous priest-detective shines in this crime anthology, packed with mystery and paradox. From ‘The Absence of Mr. Glass’ to ‘The Head of Caesar’, Father Brown and his thief-turned-detective sidekick, Flambeau, return for a series of adventures that range from philosophical quibbles to the most fundamental matters of morality. This collection of crime short stories will tickle fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dirk Gently alike with satirical wit and enticingly clever cases.



Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was an English writer, journalist, philosopher, and literary critic. An unparalleled essayist, he produced over four thousand essays during his lifetime, alongside eighty novels and two hundred short stories. Tackling topics of politics, history, philosophy and theology with tenacious wit and humour, G. K. Chesterton was often considered a master of the paradox. Himself both a modernist and devout Catholic, he is remembered best for his priest-detective short stories ‘Father Brown’, and his metaphysical thriller ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’. In his lifetime Chesterton befriended and debated some of the greatest thinkers of the age, such as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Bertrand Russell, while his works went on to inspire figures including T. S. Eliot, Michael Collins, and Mahatma Gandhi.