Before You Begin

Before you begin.

On a warm evening outside a pale green-and-white country house, Father Brown and Flambeau encounter a household built around Leonard Quinton, a fragile poet drawn to violent colour, exotic objects, and private experiments of the mind. His doctor controls access to a locked study; his wife's composure is strained; her brother waits outside for money; and a silent Indian visitor stands beyond the glass conservatory.

The first unease arrives in the shape of an object: a crooked, jeweled knife found in the grass. Soon the garden becomes a stage of fixed positions, gathering storm, and contradictory appearances. A voice is heard behind a locked door. A coin crosses its threshold. Everyone seems to know where everyone else has been.

First published in 1910, "The Wrong Shape" is the seventh Father Brown story. Chesterton builds its mystery from architecture, observation, prejudice, and the physical character of a scrap of paper. The decisive clue is not hidden from sight; it is hidden by the assumption that an object must be what it appears to be.