Short Detective Story Review – G K Chesterton – Father Brown – The Secret Garden

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1910 – Spoiler alerts The second Father Brown mystery is full of surprises in its dramatic changes from the debut tale and in presenting a genuinely astonishing personality change in a seemingly central character. After the gentle debut story was a lightweight romp with no actual murders, the switch to violent homicide is quite powerful in this tale. Brown is invited to France for the retirement party of police inspector Valentin, a smart Interpol Cop Brown assisted in the earlier case, which Valentin narrated. As he has many enemies, Valentin has turned his house and garden area into a fortress with only one entrance/exit. Somehow, a dead body is found in the garden, with a severed head next to the headless torso. As the dead man was not invited, the question is how he got into the secret guarded garden fortress and how his killer could hope to escape. Suspicion falls on the old soldier with a sword that could have decapitated the victim, but then another severed head is found in the woods bordering the outside of the garden’s walls, this time with no visible body nearby. Brown cracks the mystery, and (extra spoiler warnings as I am identifying the killer) it was done by Valentin. There is only one murder victim – the second head was stolen by Valentin after a guillotine execution, and used with the body to confuse investigators about how a stranger got into the estate. The real victim’s head was thrown over the garden wall. Valentin hoped to fool everyone as he considered himself so smart. It is a shocker as Valentin is intensely likeable in the debut story and therefore seems automatically above suspicion. Truly ingenious writing. Arthur Chappell