7 h 10 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 10 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if solving a crime means finding the criminal’s heart within your own?
In G. K. Chesterton’s The Secret of Father Brown, a mild Catholic priest sees what the police miss. The opening title story brings him together with Flambeau, his reformed thief friend, and Grandison Chace, an American visitor eager to understand his gift. Father Brown’s answer turns detection inward: he tries to think like the person who commits the crime.
The separate cases that follow lead through country estates, sea coasts and stage-lit scenes. Respectable faces hide motives, and apparently clear situations become puzzles. While others reach for curses or dark powers, Father Brown looks for plain causes. These short mysteries offer more than the question of who did it: they ask how human beings deceive others, and themselves.
What you’ll discover
- The priest’s unsettling secret Discover a detective whose strongest tool is his willingness to understand the culprit.
- Appearances that lead astray Look past calm gardens and respectable company to the motives concealed beneath.
- Reason against dark legends Follow Father Brown as he questions spooky explanations and searches for human causes.
- Strange places, ingenious puzzles Move between unusual settings where puzzling deaths challenge the picture first presented.
- Wit with a moral edge Enjoy Chesterton’s bright paradoxes as clever surprises open onto serious questions about human nature.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love puzzles with a surprise in every chapter, sharp talk, odd settings, and a detective who solves crimes through sympathy and faith rather than gadgets.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Father Brown solves crimes by becoming the criminal
- A shot and a broken mirror
- Why would a thief wear two beards
- A magic song cannot steal what is too close
- An alibi on the stage, and a locked door below
- A squire strolls into a village and is gone
- A son wants a loan against a father's castle
- A ruby vanishes before a crowd
- A mourner hides a secret behind a mask
Who’s who
- Father BrownA short, shabby Catholic priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the criminal's mind.
- FlambeauA former master thief now living quietly in Spain as Duroc, with a wife, children and a vineyard.
- Grandison ChaceA curious, polite Boston traveler who asks Father Brown to explain his method.
- BagshawA good-humored police detective who follows the murder of Mr Justice Gwynne.
- Francis BoyleA young Irish secretary who hears a strange song at dawn and sees the goldfish vanish.
- Betty FaneFather Brown's niece, who worries about the strange laugh of her suitor, Captain Musgrave.
- Lady MounteagleA mystic hostess at Mallowood Abbey who admires an Eastern prophet.
- General OutramA blunt old soldier who tells the story of a duel that haunts the Marquis of Marne.
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- Audiobook
- 7 h 10 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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El secreto del padre Brown
by G. K. Chesterton · 1927
A priest tells an American that he killed every victim himself, and then explains what he means.
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In short
A priest tells an American that he killed every victim himself. Then he explains what he means.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Father Brown solves crimes by becoming the criminal
In a castle in Spain lives Flambeau, once the most famous thief in France, now a settled family man who has gone back to his real name, Duroc. His old friend Father Brown arrives for a visit. A Boston neighbor, Grandison Chace, is eager to meet him and asks for the secret behind his cases. Some Americans even think the priest has occult powers.
Father Brown groans and gives an answer that makes Chace rise from his chair. He says he committed every murder himself. He means that he thinks his way into the killer's mind until he sits inside the hatred and sees the world through its narrow eyes. He scorns the cold study of criminals as if they were insects under glass, which he calls a dead light.
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What is The Secret of Father Brown about?
It is a set of detective tales told by Father Brown in a Spanish courtyard. He explains his method to an American visitor, then recalls cases involving a judge, a jewel thief, a theater manager, a squire and a hidden marquis.
What is the secret of Father Brown?
He claims he solves crimes by imagining himself into the killer's mind until he feels what the killer feels. He sees this as a religious exercise in humility, not as magic or science.
Who is Flambeau in the Father Brown stories?
Flambeau was a famous French criminal who later worked as a private detective in England. In this book he has retired to Spain with his family, using his real name, Duroc.
The author
G. K. Chesterton
1874–1936 · English writer and Christian apologist
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer born in London. He wrote novels, essays, poems and plays. His books include Heretics (1905), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and The Innocence of Father Brown (1911). He moved to Beaconsfield in 1909 and lived there until his death.
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