G.K. Chesterton's main character is a short, unassuming Catholic priest who has learned much of the ways of the criminal world by serving in a parish populated by members of that element of society. As far as I know, all of the Father Brown tales are short stories, rather than novel length books. Early on, in the story "The Blue Cross" in The Innocence of Father Brown, Chesterton also introduces the character of Flambeau, who becomes his foil, first as a highly successful jewel thief, and later, after Father Brown convinces him that his future path is downward, as a detective.
As I read through the stories, I became increasingly aware that, at least in the early books, Chesterton did not follow the "fair play" rules of Golden Age mystery fiction, usually by having Father Brown observe something that is not disclosed to the reader until Father Brown explains the mystery. For example, in the story, "The Salad of Colonel Cray" in The Wisdom of Father Brown, Father Brown is described as investigating a dust bin on the property where a burglary has taken place to the point where he emerges with ashes in his hair, but the reader is not told what he saw in the dustbin until he reveals at the end that he had found the supposedly stolen silverware dumped in the bin as a blind.
Although the mysteries appear to be caused by some supernatural agency, Father Brown explains by showing that they are the result of an ordinary human intervention.
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