Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
The short stories
- Father Brown in his first appearance, in "The Blue Cross". At the beginning of the story he is seemingly kidnapped by Flambeau, the biggest criminal in Europe who is after a blue jewelled cross that Father Brown is transporting. At the end of the story, Father Brown reveals that not only is he not carrying the cross (he switched parcels so it is now winging its way in safety to Rome) and not only did he purposely orchestrate events of the story in order to allow the police to follow them but also that Father Brown knows every villainous trick that Flambeau knows and then some from just listening to criminals in confession. The story ends with a pre-Wayne's World moment of 'we are not worthy' from not only Flambeau but also France's leading detective.
- In "The Queer Feet", when Father Brown calmly tells a roomful of rich and privileged plutocrats that the Gentleman Thief has not only escaped, sacrificed his loot, but repented, the reaction is disbelieving. Father Brown calmly answers, "Odd, isn't it, that a thief and a vagabond should repent, when so many who are rich and secure remain hard and frivolous, and without fruit for God or man?"
- From the same story, Father Brown delivers An Aesop:"Yes," he said; "it must be very hard work to be a gentleman; but, do you know, I have sometimes thought that it may be almost as laborious to be a waiter."
- In "The Two Beards", everyone is convinced that an ex-thief in the neighborhood must be the culprit. Father Brown insists that the man is innocent, and when they persist he shuts them up with a single sentence:Bankes: Hang it all! After all, he was a convicted thief!
Father Brown: Yes. And only a convicted thief has ever in this world heard that assurance: 'This night shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.'
