Collection of short detective stories by G K Chesterton. I don't normally read many short stories but these are beautiful.They create a strange, surreal atmosphere that draws you back to the the time they were written. One can get a feel for Chesterton's philosophy and his religious ideals from them.Some are funny, like "The Singular Speculation of the House Agent" and others are quite affecting, like the Gabriel Gale ones e.g. "The Shadow of the Shark". ( )

This collection includes stories about all Chesterton's series sleuths (Father Brown, Horne Fisher, Mr. Pond, Gabriel Gale) together with some who only appear in one story. As some of these stories otherwise only appear in hard-to-obtain magazines or books, it could reasonably be termed a "must-have" for any aficionado of this writer. The Father Brown story is itself a rarity - it consists of a problem set by Max Pemberton and solved by the priest-detective. The stories are not of uniform quality, but given Chesterton's remarkable abilities all af them are worthwhile to some extent. ( )