FoC 073: What Makes a Good Mystery? A Discussion on G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown Stories

 

Every so often we tell the listeners ahead of time about a great book we want to discuss and have a little FoC “book club.”  This time it’s the Father Brown stories by famous British Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton.  A longtime favorite of Christy’s, Father Brown was a new read to Haley. The central character, Father Brown, is an ordinary and humble Catholic priest with the ability to get to the heart of the matter and solve murder mysteries when everyone else is baffled. These classic detective short stories are full of charm and wit.

In our discussion we tackled some fun topics such as why we are drawn to mysteries and Chesterton’s take on detective fiction and how the character of Father Brown is a response to popular detective characters of the time like Sherlock Holmes. We also compared Chesterton’s tales to the recent Father Brown television series (and some of our other favorite murder mysteries).

We had a lot of fun chatting about this lovely read and we tried not to spoil the tales for you if you haven’t had a chance to pick them up yet. So grab yourself a basket of laundry or a cup of tea and enjoy!

Today’s book:

(This post contains Amazon affiliate links.)

Father Brown: The Essential Tales

Other books we talked about:

G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

In this episode:

A Defense of Detective Stories by G.K. Chesterton

Father Brown (also streaming on Netflix)

Father Brown

Sherlock

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Luther

And check out our previous book episodes!

We’ll definitely be chatting more about Father Brown in our Facebook group so be sure to join in over there!

Come hang out with us!

You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.

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6 thoughts on “FoC 073: What Makes a Good Mystery? A Discussion on G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown Stories”

  1. I think you ladies should interview a priest, a monk, and a nun, since this podcast is about vocations. We talk a lot about motherhood, but we should look at those stations as well.

  2. Anne with an E made me visibly agitated! Seriously AWFUL! I cannot believe anyone with half a brain could read the books and then make a movie misjudging Anne so terribly…. I had to just turn in off after a number of episodes because it was just sooo bad. Worst of all, people who haven’t read the books actually like Anne in the movies.. really sad…they have no idea what their missing. So thankful that someone finally agrees with me!!! PREACH IT!

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