The Innocence of Father Brown is a collection of twelve short stories by G. K. Chesterton featuring the character of Father Brown, a short, stocky Roman Catholic priest who spends much of his time sleuthing about and solving crimes and mysteries using his intuition and understanding of human nature and especially evil. The character of Father Brown was loosely based on a parish priest in Bradford, Father John O’Connor, and is portrayed in shapeless clothes with a large umbrella and a bicycle. In a way, he is a counterpoint to the eccentric and super rational Sherlock Holmes character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The stories in the Innocence of Father Brown were originally published by The Story-Teller in England and the Saturday Evening Post in America before release in book form in 1911. Chesterton produced four additional Father Brown collections: The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914), The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926), The Secret of Father Brown (1927) and The Scandal of Father Brown (1935).  The stories have often been adapted for film, radio and television, most notably in Father Brown, Detective (1934) starring Walter Connolly, Father Brown (1954) starring Alec Guinness, and most recently the popular Father Brown series of ten episodes on BBC starring Mark Williams.

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