Author:G K Chesterton,Michael Hurley
The complete adventures of the well-loved clerical sleuth, collected in one brilliant volume.
Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success: refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself. This complete edition brings together all of the Father Brown stories, including two not previously available in Penguin: 'The Donnington Affair', in which Chesterton rises to the challenge of solving a murder-mystery half written by someone else (Max Pemberton), and 'The Mask of Midas', which was found in Chesterton's papers after his death. It also includes an introduction and notes by Michael D. Hurley.
G.K. Chesteron was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best-known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much(1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938.
Michael D. Hurley is a Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. He has written widely on English literature from the nineteenth century to the present day, with an emphasis on poetry and poetics. His book on G. K. Chesterton was published in 2011.
So brilliantly does Tarquin hall capture the sights, smells, sounds and foibles of modern India, not to mention the nuances of English-Indian speech, that it is hard to believe he is not himself Indian. He also serves up fabulous descriptions of the Indian cuisine much favoured by Puri, a sort of Indian Poirot whose lunch will always come before his crime-solving.
—— Daily MailThe novel is an entertaining yarn about the apparent murder of a well-known religious sceptic by an apparition of the Goddess Kali and a ripe comedy of Indian manners, brimming with well-observed detail.
—— Mail on SundayVish Puri - "Most Private Investigator", according to his card - is large, constantly hungry, a perpetual victim of Delhi's traffic congestion, and a wonderfully engaging PI . . . the characters - including Puri's complicated family - are splendid, and it's a joy to read
—— The TimesA funny, entertaining novel [with a] wonderfully engaging Private Investigator . . the characters - including Vish Puri's complicated family - are splendid, and it's a joy to read.
—— Marcel Berlins , The TimesSweet-natured and hilarious
—— Financial Tiimes Summer ReadsPopular fiction at its best
—— The Washington PostOnly one's dreams after a champagne-fuelled night at the Follies Bergere have quite the same nightmarish-but-entertaining quality as Vargas's delightful crime novels
—— Jake Kerridge , Daily TelegraphGripping
—— Guardian[Vargas is] one of the most exciting, addictive and inventive purveyor of classy crime fiction currently pounding the publishing beat... It it a highly entertaining policier but more importantly, as with Conan Doyle, the wacky world Vargas shapes is oddly reassuring: a great remedy to a grey day
—— Christian House , Indepedent on SundayA thrilling read
—— Sunday TimesA beguiling story
—— Independent on SundayA sinister, beguiling tale that brilliantly evokes a childhood world
—— Woman and HomeBrilliant and nightmarish, this modern fairytale is beautifully written
—— Eve MagazinePhantom will maintain Jo Nesbo’s unstoppable momentum.
—— The IndependentThe king of Nordic crime – and his haunted protagonist Harry Hole – returns with this tightly plotted thriller which pitches Hole deep into the murky underworld of Oslo’s heroin market.
—— MetroJo Nesbo is at the top of his game... The must-read thriller of 2012.
—— BellaPhantom leaves us reeling, with a storyline and ending that hurts us almost as much as it hurts the protagonists... The twists and turns show Nesbo at his complicated, yet utterly accessible best, and Hole at his undeniably brilliant but self-destructive worst.
—— The ListJo Nesbo is a master of his craft. His latest novel, Phantom, is world-class crime writing. Phantom is a crime novel that pleases on every level.
—— Dagbladet (Norway)Harry Hole is back only to find that the case he wants to investigate is already closed
—— ObserverJo Nesbo has done it again with Phantom, his seventh gripping novel featuring Inspector Harry Hole... Tense and compulsive Phantom will have you jumping out of your seat
—— Hannah Britt , Daily ExpressKing of Scandinavian crime... A writer at the top of his game
—— Deirdre O’Brien , Sunday MirrorRiveting reading from page one
—— My Weekly