The Innocence of Father Brown Author:Gilbert Keith Chesterton

(1911) "The Innocence of Father Brown" is the first book of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful and lyrically written mystery short stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of the criminal and understanding his motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and "Chestertonian fantasy," or seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary."The Innocence of Father Brown" is the first collection of mystery short stories involving the fictional character Father Brown. Inspired by Father John O'Connor, GK Chesterton's friend and Catholic priest, Father Brown became one of the greatest fictional characters in detective mystery stories. Father Brown was a short unsuspecting priest with glasses who would solve crimes by understanding the human mind and soul of the criminals involved. This was a radically different approach from the imitators of Sherlock Holmes, trying to overdo each other with strange crimes focusing on physical clues. Many stories in The Innocence of Father Brown are filled with paradox, an understanding of human nature, and spiritual insight from the priest with Chesterton’s unique style of looking into the ordinary as extraordinary. The Father Brown series has lead to the inspiration of Agatha Christie and many other writers. Alfred Hitchcock admired the Father Brown series as well.--Submitted by Anonymous.