G K Chesterton

The Donnington Affair (Illustrated) G K Chesterton

The Donnington Affair is an intriguing example of a detective story with multiple authors (an idea that would enjoy a considerable vogue during the golden age of detective fiction). The first half of The Donnington Affair was written by Sir Max Pemberton and published in October 1914. It gives us the set-up and the murder. Pemberton challenged G. K. Chesterton to provide the solution. The second half of the story, published in the same periodical a month later, was written by Chesterton and describes Father Brown's solution to the mystery. Pemberton's mystery is ingenious enough. It involves bitter family quarrels, a son who has turned (not very successfully) to crime, and a country house riddled with secrets. There's no shortage of suspects but the time and place of the murder present problems for any would-be detective. Chesterton's little priest-detective was certainly fascinated by criminal puzzles but he was always more interested in crimes as spiritual and moral puzzles rather than mere intellectual games. Chesterton in this case succeeds reasonably well in making this into an authentic Father Brown mystery.