The Brewer's Daughter is the second episode of the fourth season of Father Brown.
Sid falls for the married heiress of a local brewery. When her father turns up dead after a fire, she is arrested for his murder.
Tropes:
- Arranged Marriage: Brewer Gabriel Kane arranged the marriage of his daughter Grace to the wealthy Harry Fitzgerald, as the brewery was in dire need of a cash injection to stay afloat. The fact that the episode opens with Grace having spent the night with Sid is our first clue that she has never loved Harry. She never loved the brewery either, leading her to frame Harry and her stepsister Rose for Gabriel's murder and an arson attempt at the brewery, after which she announces that the brewery is closing and the workers are being laid off en masse.
- Book Safe: Grace tells Father Brown to look for the Holy Grail to clear her. It turns out that the key to her father's safe is hidden inside a book titled The Silver Chalice.
- Fiery Cover Up: This is what appears to have been happened, but in reality, it was the reverse. Grace set the fire in such a way as to make it obvious it was arson as part of an elaborate frame-up.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Grace does this to herself, laying out an Orgy of Evidence, relying on Father Brown to realise this evidence was planted, and then uncover the second more subtle set of clues planted to implicate someone else.
- Never Learned to Read: Mrs. McCarthy is organising an adult literacy class, and when Lady Felicia mentions that a murder suspect who committed suicide had signed up for the class, Father Brown realises that his suicide note must be a forgery, and that he was really murdered.
- Orgy of Evidence: During The Summation, Father Brown points out that the sheer amount of evidence uncovered was unlikely unless Grace was attempting a frame-up. She was attempting to invoke this trope by framing herself, and relying on Father Brown to then uncover the evidence she had left implicating her husband and stepsister.
