The Scandal of Father Brown (1935)
My review:
A rather disappointing collection: the stories are unspectacular (and often dull), without paradoxes; the characterisation is flat; the clues are slight; and, rather than writing with passion, Chesterton is clearly writing for vulgar cash. The result: Chesterton has lost his magic.
The Scandal of Father Brown
Domestic tripe for women's magazines is unacceptable even when couched in Chesterton's superb prose.
The Quick One
Chesterton's fondness for beer leads him to set this tale in an inn, and to make the motive skulduggery in a brewer's firm. There is plenty of workmanlike detection, but fewer clues, and, although the method is sound, there are too many coincidences.
The Blast of the Book
An entertaining story about the disappearances of various men who have read the cursed book, but we have seen both solution and moral before.
The Green Man
A traditional story of an Admiral, returned from the sea, drowned in the pool by The Green Man, with a soundly-clued motive. We should, however, have been told of the dagger.
The Pursuit of Mr. Blue
One of Chesterton's weakest, because of its colossal waste of opportunity. The trick by which the murderer escaped from the scene of the crime (a seaside hut) would have been given a double twist eight years ago, which would have given it an element of surprise, rather than allowing Father Brown to capture the obvious culprit.
The Crime of the Communist
One of the better stories in the collection, this tale of a highly ingenious poisoning in an Oxford college suffers from an interminable lecture on Capitalism, Communism and Socialism, which engenders in the reader the desire to emulate the victims. Pity, though, for the problem itself is sound.
The Point of a Pin
A mockery of Father Brown: the paradox, 'The point of the pin is that it is pointless,' is clever, but, oh! how dull G.K.C. is in this tedious tale of industrial strikes, big business shenanigans, and vanishing company directors. One much prefers the Coles.
The Insoluble Problem
The heart of the reader who knows his Chesterton will leap when he sees that "old swaggering musketeer" Flambeau mentioned in the first sentence, for Flambeau always added zest and enthusiasm to a story. He will not be disappointed, for this tale of a stolen relic, a thief with a sense of humour, a trail laid for the investigators (how similar to "The Blue Cross"!), and a corpse that was neither hanged nor stabbed, and that leapt from the window and ran down the hedge parallel to the path, hopping on one leg and turning cartwheels, shows Chesterton's mastery of the fantastic for a logical purpose. Thereis plenty of energy and humour, and both Father Brown and Flambeau visibly shine.
The Vampire of the Village
A curious sense of unreality hangs like a pall over the St. Mary Meadish village where the vicar's poetical son is enamoured of Mrs. Maltravers, who may have poisoned her husband. The solution is, as usual, not what we have been led to expect, but the motive makes no sense, and neither do the dates.