検索キーワード： 著者 "G.K. Chesterton" すべてのカテゴリー

Murder comes in two familiar forms. Whether as a crime of passion with high emotions or a cold dispassionate plot to take life in order to gain in some way, the act strikes us all as somehow inhuman. Beneath us as civilised beings. But however we cloak our animal instincts the need to remove a human being and gain relief from abuse or gain from money, the term is just the same – MURDER. Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J M Barrie, W W Jacobs and many others bring their literary heft to bear in as calculating a way as any killer could.

Short story The Blue Cross is Chesterton's first Father Brown mystery. It introduces the characters Flambeau and Valentin. It is unique among the Father Brown mysteries in that it does not follow the actions of the Father himself, but rather those of Valentin. Brown has been committing acts to draw the attention of the police (throwing soup, knocking over apples, smashing a window) and leaving an obvious trail for them to follow. Valentin takes this opportunity to emerge from hiding with the policemen and arrest Flambeau. Both Flambeau and Valentin bow to Father Brown's superior detective skills.