The Innocence of Father Brown

Chesterton's stories of Father Brown, a self-effacing priest who applies his brilliant mind to solving mysteries, are often implausible, melodramatic, and dated. Still, they entertain, and David Timson reads the first six here with loving care. He gives Brown a mild voice, but likable and not weak, and provides other character voices without strain or caricature, including accents. (His American is very good.) His warm, rich, naturally expressive voice not only conveys meaning and emotion but also brings an overall tone of amusement to the stories, letting us know how to take them--this is voice as interpretation. That may seem affected, but Chesterton's stories, self-consciously clever romances addicted to paradox and disputation, are far from naturalistic. Timson gets the tone just right. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

At least a dozen audiobook versions already exist of this first collection of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories, but this new version for AmazonClassics has much to commend it. Rory Barnett--also the narrator for Chesterton's THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY--captures much of the distinctive tone and spirit of these stories and their beloved author. Now more than a century past, that was a time when authors were reserved and omniscient, wrote proper English in measured cadences, and contrived a tale that challenged both mind and wits. The voice is assured and reassuring, and these 12 stories are, as ever, satisfyingly artful and ingenious. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine