Father Brown Stories | by G. K. Chesterton | A Bitesized Audio Compilation

Описание: A selection of seven stories featuring Father Brown, the priest detective created in 1910 by G. K. Chesterton. Story details and timestamps below. These stories are already available on the channel as individual uploads if you prefer to listen that way, but I've taken the opportunity while preparing this compilation to re-edit and remaster some of the older recordings. (Note: as they were recorded episodically between 2020 and 2024 you may notice a slight variation in acoustic/audio quality between stories.)

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:42 The Blue Cross
00:53:22 The Secret Garden
01:47:47 The Queer Feet
02:40:34 The Invisible Man
03:24:44 The Mirror of the Magistrate
04:14:09 The Man with Two Beards
05:07:42 The Oracle of the Dog
06:05:37 Credits, thanks and further listening
(Story teasers and more details below)

Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to exclusive content):

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Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English author, theologian, philosopher and critic, who produced a wide-ranging output of fiction, poetry and journalism. His writing covered a wide variety of subjects, ranging from crime fiction to Christianity. His most famous novel is probably the "metaphysical thriller" 'The Man Who Was Thursday' (1908), but his most famous fictional creation is surely Father Brown, the Catholic priest-detective who featured in more than 50 short stories published episodically between 1910 and 1936. A complete contrast to his (near) contemporary Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown is quiet, unassuming and solves crimes with instinct, intuition and a deep understanding of human nature.

About the stories:

The Blue Cross | Aristide Valentin, head of the Paris police, is on the trail of Flambeau, a notorious French criminal and master of disguise, believed to be in London. Valentin follows both his instincts and a series of clues, but is baffled by the intervention of a strange little priest... The first story to feature the character of Father Brown, although the main protagonist in this adventure is really the French detective Valentin, who is in pursuit of Flambeau, a criminal celebrity. (Flambeau was to appear in many subsequent Father Brown tales, having renounced a life of crime and become a detective himself.)

The Secret Garden | An outdoor "locked room" mystery in which a body is discovered in a sealed garden. But with no access to the outside world how did the victim get into the garden – and how did the murderer get out?

The Queer Feet | When Father Brown is called to the exclusive Vernon Hotel to administer the last rites to a dying member of staff, he manages to detect a crime in progress, and save a soul, all by listening to a few strange footsteps in a corridor...

The Invisible Man | A voice in an empty street, a supernatural laugh, footprints appearing where multiple witnesses insist nobody has been: Laura Hope is haunted by an unseen presence. Mr Angus wants to help, and enlists the services of Flambeau, a private detective, and his clerical friend Father Brown...

The Mirror of the Magistrate | When well-known judge Sir Humphrey Gwynne is found murdered in his large and secluded back garden, several suspects are soon discovered lurking on the premises: it seems that Father Brown is the only person present who hasn't climbed over the garden wall...

The Man with Two Beards | Breakfast in the Bankes household is enlivened by news that a notorious jewel thief is believed to be living nearby under an assumed name, not least because Mrs. Bankes is the owner of a valuable emerald necklace. The new lodger at Smith the bee-keeper's farm seems to be an obvious suspect. As robbery develops into murder, luckily Smith's friend Father Brown is on hand to investigate...

The Oracle of the Dog | The press calls it the "invisible murder case": Colonel Druce was stabbed while alone in his summerhouse – yet multiple witnesses confirm that no-one was seen to enter or leave. And the victim's dog, who was out on a walk at the time of the murder, began to howl inexplicably at just about the time the crime was committed. Could the dog really hold the key to the mystery...?

Recordings © Bitesized Audio 2020–24, compilation © Bitesized Audio 2024