A review by mc_j_ho
The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton

2.0

I really didn't enjoy this for so many reasons but I will keep it brief. The Basil Grant character was an insufferably pompous, mercurial in his dispensing of his insights, over zealous, moralizing buffoon. Meanwhile the other characters were largely idiotic 2D straw men designed to reflect Basil's greatness. As for the "queer trades" they were in the most part decidedly disappointing. Chesterton, in his (clearly declared in this work) staunch religiosity, conservatism and bull headed disregard for reason and science, was utterly unpersuasive. This work seems to have been written as an attempt to criticize Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes character and his dedication to science and reason and for me failed utterly in this object. I am sorry but archaic morality, intuition and subtle mysticism are not believable devices by which mysteries can be solved. 2/5.