Chesterton portrays Father Brown as a short, stumpy Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. In "The Head of Caesar" he is "formerly priest of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London". He makes his first appearance in the story "The Blue Cross", and continues to appear throughout five volumes of short stories, often assisted in his crime-solving by the reformed criminal M. Hercule Flambeau.