Ten Adventures of Father Brown

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

One thing that annoyed me about this collection was that there was no dates on when the stories were originally written/published. Only vague references like to a war or how alcohol is illegal in the US give any clue as to when some of the stories were written*, but no clue as to order or how much time has passed between the various stories.
* Specifically, not just between 1911 & 1936.

A general observation: In the stories that team up Brown & Flambeau a big deal is made of how big Flambeau was compared to how small Brown was. Reminded me of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser. ;-)

Another general observation & possibly advance apology to Kerriem: Given the character, & Chesterton's religious nature, it's hard to avoid religious stuff in the stories. I've tried to restrict my comments to things stated in the stories that I percieved as nits and hopefully disagreements with my comments will not turn this into Religious Musings II.

The Arrow Of Heaven
The author has some Americans refer to Red Indians. Even at the time this was written I don't think very many Americans used this term. An Englishman would because they have to differentiate between American (Red) Indians and India (Brown) Indians.

Two abrupt time jumps in this story. At one point we are told that a month has gone by, this is to show a change in one character, but no other evidence of that much time passing has occurred. Then we are told another month has passed. Maybe if Chesterton had mentioned other things going on, like the police investigation & such, these jumps wouldn't be so abrupt.

The Doom Of The Darnaways
A doctor mentions genetics & problems with inbreeding & then jumps to the conclusion that committing suicide is inevitable. Father Brown hears this and denounces science as a superstition.
First off, the doctor (& Chesterton himself) clearly had a poor understanding of genetics.
Secondly later stories in the book would have Brown talking about using science & scientific methods.

The Hammer Of God
This story features Brown believing an improbable theory (which turns out to be true) over a probable theory (that turns out to be false). Good thing he's got the writer on his side. As someone who rarely hits what he's aiming at, I find the solution to this story highly improbable. An angry man throwing a hammer from a great height, hits the victim's head. Now maybe if we had been shown that the killer was good at hitting small targets from a great distance I could accept this solution better. As it is, I find it to be incredibly lucky, or perhaps an... Act of God. ;-)

The Head Of Caesar
Chesterton & Brown make a completely unprovoked attack against atheists here.
He's talking to a woman about the man who is following her, when he says, "What we all dread most is a maze with no centre. That is why atheism is only a nightmare."
What?!? Where did that come from? The woman & Brown were not even talking about religion and no character before or after is identified as an atheist in the story.
Of course Brown's statement is inaccurate, although I can understand why a religious person might choose to believe it. So while the statement is a nit, the fact someone would say it is believable.

The Oracle Of The Dog
Fiennes is telling Brown about a murder and he mentions a dog acting strange against a person as if the dog knew he committed the murder. Brown angrily starts asking if they performed this or that superstitious ritual and finishes with, "That is the sort of scientific test you heathen humanitarians seem to trust." Then he apologizes for being rude.
At no point prior to this outburst was Fiennes identified as a Heathen, a Humanitarian, or a Heathen Humanitarian. Frankly I just assumed that since the guy was talking to a Roman Catholic priest that maybe he was Catholic himself.
I get the feeling that Chesterton realized he was going over the top there. Shame he didn't rewrite it to make his point better.

Brown talks of people believing in superstitions as the "first effect of not believing in God."
Oh, the irony. (If you don't get the irony replace the name God with Zeus, Thor, Osiris or any other god you don't personally believe in.)

The Secret Of Flambeau
Explaining his method of figuring out who commits crimes, Brown uses the example of a revolutionary poet believed to have murdered a judge and Brown realizing that he wouldn't have done it because he gets his anger out by writing poetry. Oddly enough there is what appears to be a revolutionary poet in The Ghost Of Gideon Wise who did commit murder.

In this story Flambeau's identity as M. Duroc is apparently a secret. however in The Arrow Of Heaven it was said that Americans knew of Brown's "long association with Flambeau, the ex-criminal and detective". Now how can one know of a long association if his identity is a secret?

Flambeau says, "Only my friend told me exactly why I stole". Well, not exactly. What Brown did in The Flying Stars was appeal to Flambeau's ego by saying how clever he was in the crime committed. Not quite the same thing.

The Sign Of The Broken Sword
NANJAO: Wasn't that the name of a Hardy Boys story?

The anthology The Man Who Was Chesterton reprints several of the Father Brown stories.

Chesterton also wrote a story titled The Invisible Man,except unlike Wells' book of the same title Chesterton's Invisible Man was a common ordinary mailman who got by committing murder because no-one suspected him.

There is also a book by Chesterton called The Poet And The Lunatics in the same vein,but the hero is a poet and not a priest.