Father Brown , full-time Catholic priest and part-time amateur detective, returns in this third collection of short stories.

Unlike the first two collections, this time Father Brown is investigating alone; his sidekick, the former criminal Flambeau, is nowhere to be seen. Father Brown has to solve a murder (including his own!) in each story, and since several also appear to involve the supernatural, he has ample opportunity to elaborate on his thoughts concerning it. As with the first two collections, Chesterton is often as concerned with the moral of the story as with the mystery itself.

Most of the stories were previously published in The Pall Mall Magazine , though one appeared in Cassell’s Magazine and another was written specifically for this collection.