The Man Who Knew Too Much

    Chesterton was certainly a most versatile and prolific writer. Some of his stuff is way too silly, and others are cleverly humorous, but my favorite Chesterton works are mostly the detective stories. He is best known for his Father Brown stories, of which he wrote volumes, however my favorite single book so far is Four Faultless Felons.
    Probably Chesterton's chief identifying trait is his ability to twist his plots and characters in order to make readers rethink not only the way they perceive the story, but the way they perceive life. This is especially true in his detective stories, because the one who would appear to be the most guilty often turns out to be the most noble.
    Well, in this one, he twists yet again, in a way different from all I've read so far. In addition to being a novelist, essayist, journalist, poet and much more, Chesterton was an expert in politics, particularly the current politics in England during his life. Perhaps he was a "man who knew too much," as his character Horne Fisher. I usually make the comment that in order to fully appreciate Chesterton's works, one really had to be there. Not so in this book! This is a universal books for all times, because it is about all the corruption that goes on at the top, and goes unpunished, just because it's at the top. How very interesting! Our hero Horne always knows who the criminal is, but ultimately lets it go because he knows pushing the issue would do no good. Hmm! In The Bottomless Well, Horne says:

It's what I do know that isn't worth knowing. All the seamy side of things, all the secret reasons and rotten motives and bribery and blackmail they call politics.

And from The Fad of the Fisherman:

Harker suddenly shuddered. Then he said, "I believe you must know everything, like God Almighty"
"I know too much," said Horne Fisher, "and all the wrong things."

There are eight short stories in this collection, although, as typical with Chesterton, it is not published as a collection, but as an ongoing story where the main character participates in different situations. So it will not be found on my "collected stories" index. All of Chesterton's writings that are reviewed on this site may be accessed on his index page.
I don't want to give away the mystery of the stories, so I will just mention briefly what each one is about.

The Face in the Target
Here is where we first meet our hero. Well he's probably not a hero, and he's actually rather dull, but he does know a bit about just about everything, and too much about some things that he wishes he didn't. It is, however, the journalist Harold March we first meet, as he comes to Torwood Park for his appointment with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Howard Horne. As he walks, he comes upon a stream and a fisherman, with whom he strikes up a conversation. Suddenly a car comes crashing down the ledge, throwing its driver out. He is dead, of course, and the fisherman knows him. It is Sir Humphrey Turnbull. And March also learns that the fisherman is Horne Fisher, Sir Howard's cousin. March then becomes acquainted with some of Fisher's important friends and relatives, one of which has just committed a murder. And Fisher knows who and why, but no one would believe him if he told them. Except March.

The Vanishing Prince
This one is about an Irishman named Michael O'Neill, known as Prince Michael, who "had a talent for appearing when he was not wanted and a talent for disappearing when he was wanted, especially when he was wanted by the police." But this time he is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. And Horne Fisher knows who did.

The Soul of a Schoolboy is about an uncle and nephew out for a day's journey. The uncle wants to show the nephew a very valuable coin called Paul's Penny. But while they are in the highly secured room, the lights go out, the nephew disappears, and the penny is stolen.

The Bottomless Well takes place somewhere in the east, Middle East most likely, at a British military base. There is a well said to be bottomless with an Arab legend attached to it.

The Fad of the Fisherman
Here March sails down a river to his destination, where he is to meet the Prime Minister, a life-long friend of Fisher. Fisher was supposed to join him in the boat but was called in early, so he took a train. On the way, March observes something odd, which appears to be a man running from something, or someone. He just might be connected to a murder. This was one of my favorites, and the next one, too.

A Hole in the Wall
Sometimes legends are passed down by generations, but other times, they are deliberately altered, and become "real" because no one has checked out the facts. In this case, someone did, and knew something he should not have known.

In The Temple of Silence, Fisher tells his friend March the truth about how he became so cynical about politicians. And the last one, The Vengeance of the Statue, is, well, sort of a downer to end the book. Chesterton had many talents, but one was not so positive, and that was that he often concluded his books with a truly unsatisfying ending, that leaves the reader a bit befuddled. And the question I have is, why do men glorify war?

Chesterton was obviously a true Brit through and through. He could criticize England, but no one else had better, and he would defend her in that case no matter what, warts and all. In spite of the ending, I really enjoyed this short book. It is an easy and quick read.