"Chesterton's a swell guy"

Something inspired me recently to re-read some of Chesterton's wonderful Father Brown short stories. I was remembering how Father Brown's "arch nemesis" for the first several stories, the extremely tall French criminal mastermind Flambeau, later becomes his closest friend and partner in - well - solving crime. Something about this attracted me to the stories again, and I've been very pleased to rediscover them.

Here's the wonderful moment when Father Brown confronts Flambeau for the last time (and, of course, there's a spoiler alert):

"'Stand still', [Flambeau] said, in a hacking whisper. 'I don't want to threaten you, but -'

'I do want to threaten you,' said Father Brown, in a voice like a rolling drum. 'I want to threaten you with the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.'

'You're a rum sort of cloakroom clerk,' said the other.

'I am a priest, Monsieur Flambeau,' said Brown, 'and I am ready to hear your confession.'"

Most people love Father Brown because he is such an unlikely sleuth. Where Holmes has become a cliché - wandering around with his deerstalker hat and magnifying glass - Brown trades on people's trust in him, and their common assumption that he's, at best, a bit of a dill. As a young reader, I was inspired by the concept of a man who no-one suspects and who is thus enabled to see what no-one else sees. I tried my hand at creating a few "unlikely" detectives myself, although, sadly, they were all a little too unlikely, and hence it became quite unlikely that anyone would want to read about them.

Father Brown, on the other hand, is brilliant but misunderstood - by Chesterton's characters, and also by his readers. Often, the point people make about Father Brown is that he seems so innocent (indeed, the first collection was called "The Innocence of Father Brown"). After all, he's a priest, isn't he? Of course he'd be innocent, if not a bit ignorant. How can he solve crime? I mean, that's funny, right? A priest who can solve crimes?

Chesterton, I suspect, would be having a bit of a jovial chuckle at that idea. How can a priest possibly be ignorant of crime, and of sin? What makes Father Brown so wonderful as a detective is his intuitive knowledge of human nature. And what makes me love him, for many other reasons, is that he offers his criminals a chance at redemption. Flambeau is testament to that. Holmes solves the mystery, but quite often doesn't give a stuff if the criminal is brought to justice or let run free to commit more crimes (see "A Case of Identity" if you need proof of this). For Father Brown, however, crimes - all human crimes - run deeper than the mere identification of "whodunnit". In fact, if there were to be a truly theological approach to writing detective fiction, surely the real question should be - who didn't do it?

And Chesterton, just like Father Brown, would be ready with the answer. When asked by The Times, along with other "eminent authors", to comment on the question, "What's Wrong with the World?", Chesterton wrote a suitably short, witty and profound response:

"Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton."