Father Brown is a short, unpresuming, non-descript Catholic priest who has a knack for being present at mysterious murders and thefts. As a priest, he has heard a lot of confessions, so that his innocence is only on the surface. His understanding of the psychological and spiritual nature of Man, coupled with his keen observation and deductive reasoning enables him to solve the most mysterious of crimes. At the same time, his desire to lead people to repentance causes him to confront the criminal himself in such a fashion that they have the option to continue in their crime, or repent and begin a new life.

          The Father Brown stories, are similar to the much more well-known Sherlock Holmes stories in their revelation of impenetrable mysteries, but have different underlying assumptions on how they can be solved. The key idea of Sherlock Holmes is that we can solve difficult problems if we are observant and ruthlessly logical. Father Brown shares this Modernist view in his approach to problem solving, as he always solves his problems with keen observation and deductive reasoning, but these play less of a role than with Sherlock Holmes. Holmes’ deductions are based purely on objective facts, while Father Brown incorporates more a qualitative knowledge of humanity into his decision making.