First published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown is a series of stories involving one of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction, G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. A Roman Catholic priest, Father Brown has an uncanny insight to human evil. In contrast with the aristocratic arch-villains of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Father Brown solves mysteries involving local murders by small town crooks, narrowing the suspect list down in police-work like fashion. Chesterton's Father Brown has influenced many writers including G.M. Malliett. The cozy mystery style that Father Brown conveys sparked a revolution at the time, bringing it to the forefront of the detective fiction genre.