Father Brown of the Church of Rome is a unique collection of ten of Chesterton’s famous Father Brown stories which puts special emphasis on the role that Brown’s Catholic faith played in helping him solve the murder mysteries. As Dorothy Sayers once wrote, Chesterton was “the first man of our time to introduce the great name of God into a detective story … to enlarge the boundaries of the detective story by making it deal with death and real wickedness and real, that is to say, divine judgment.” This paperback Father Brown edition includes generous footnotes (not available in other editions) which help to clarify the literary and historical allusions made by Father Brown. It is based on the texts of the original editions by Chesterton for assurance of complete authenticity, and is set in easily readable type. These are excellent short detective yarns in the classic British tradition of Sherlock Holmes – puzzling concoctions of mysterious crimes, dubious suspects and ambiguous clues. They are among the very best of the Father Brown stories. Martin Gardner writes, “There have been many collections of Father Brown stories, but none like this one. It is a superb collection.” Michael Coren, author of Gilbert: The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton writes, “This collection could not be more timely, both for Chesterton and for Catholicism. One cannot properly appreciate Chesterton unless one at least understands the Catholic Church and, I would venture to say, one will not properly understand the Church unless one appreciates G.K. Chesterton.”
