Georges Simenon Books

Simenon's Chief Inspector Maigret never fails to take me to Paris, to enfold me into the city's daily life and the problems of solving a crime. This is accomplished by an economy of language that somehow includes all the details necessary to create a lucid scene.

This novel begins on a rainy night when Maigret accompanies his doctor friend on an amergency call: a man has been stabbed on a nearby sidewalk. It is no ordinary victim. He is the young son of a wealthy perfume manufacturer. The victim's hobby is secretly taping conversations wherever he goes. It is a pastime that proved fatal--or did it?

Maigret's investigation takes him to cafes and brasseries, from the wealthy to the poor, and piece by piece he solves the crime. Or, perhaps, it should be said that Maigret lets the killer play out and solve the case on his own. In either case it is the journey, not the solution, that ntrigues. There are the sights, and sounds, and smells of Paris. As usual, Maigret chats with his wife, goes to movies, and pauses often to have a beer or wine and to reflect on what he has uncovered to date.

Any lover of crime fiction who has not yet discovered Georges Simenon should do so immediately. Like Arthur Conan Doyle, he is one of the best, not just of crime fiction but of fiction writing in general.

The Maigrets ate on a monthly basis with Dr. Pardon and his wife. Dr. Pardon complained that medical doctors were being changed into clerks because of all of the paperwork required of them. Superintendent Maigret and Dr. Pardon went out to see a young man lying in the street, a victim of stabbing. Maigret had become involved in the case involuntarily.

In reporting the death to the family, Maigret learned that the young man's parents were very rich. The father was a perfume manufacturer. The young man had had few friends. He had an unusual hobby, recording conversations. The tape recorder was recovered.

Maigret called in Janvier. The importance given to the case by the press was surprising to both police officers. A description of the assailant was obtained. Maigret called upon his other two favorites, Lucas and Lapointe, to help with the case.

The young man had identified the places where he had made recordings. The police officers followed in his footsteps. Maigret had known professional criminals well, but he had never been that interested in them. It had all seemed like a game somehow.

On a stakeout four men, presumed art thieves, are arrested. Seemingly the young man doing the recording had stumbled upon a criminal plot. The killer called Maigret. He was a man who had crossed a barrier. It was a matter of diminished responsiblity. The tale is taut, lucid.

When Maigret meets a serial killer, it's a dramatic face to face and, as usually, Maigret can understand why the killer acts in such an horrible way. Maigret don't excuse the killer but can understand. Like said Simenon : "Understand but not judge".

This is one of my very favorite Simenon novels; superbly paced and brilliant characterizations.

This simple and old-fashioned mystery was a pleasant surprise. There was nothing flashy, or garish, or over-the top about it - a straightforward police whodunit. Some readers might find this a trifle boring - we've gotten so used to multiple storylines and side-stories that it's a little hard to switch gears and wind down to something so basic, but it's worth it. Reminds one of simpler times, and harkens back to the days of Agatha Christie (Poirot, though, not Marple).

It's not precisely a solve-it-yourself, but it does give you plenty of food for thought. Even though it's a very short book, the characters are well-written and interesting, giving you even more incentive to at least try to decipher the ending. It's possible, but I think it's more luck than skill if you figure it out. Granted, there are none of the dizzying twists and turns of more 'modern' mysteries, no technology or romance, but it's still very much worth reading for any true mystery fan.

This is one of those rare detective novels with an excellent plot, well-defined characters, great atmosphere, and in a language without a wasted word. Only Ed McBain, among American detective fiction in the police procedural sub-genre, is a rival.

Chief Inspector Maigret is not hard boiled, no tough talking cop, nor is he exceptionally perceptive or brilliant. He just attaches himself to the case and plods relentlessly. Here a tiny, 86-year old widow is murdered, after complaining to the police that her apartment has been very slightly disturbed several times while she was shopping or sitting in the park. No one in authority pays much attention to her until after she is strangled. Why would someone kill such a harmless person? She has no valuable jewelry, no cache of money. Maigret must find the motive and the killer with meager clues.

Perhaps the most impressive element of this and other Simenon novels is the economy of language, albeit in translation from the French. There is plenty of detail but without wasting a word. The Simenon books should be studied by crime writers for the narrative technique alone.

This is a thoughtful well-plotted mystery. The author does a fine job portrayng Maigret, the other detectives, the victim (an elderly lady), her niece and her niece's son. The writing is simple and easy to understand. Simemon does not waste words but he brings the characters to life. The reader will be kept guessing until the end of the book.

Imagine drinking a glass of Calvados. The title is ambiguous. She was a tiny woman insisting upon seeing Chief Inspector Maigret personally. Madame Antoine, aged, having lived in her apartment for a long time, reported that her things had been moved. There is only the key she keeps in her bag. A niece and her son are her only relatives. She is pefectly aware that a young person might consider her mad. The concierge says she is very much like any other old person living by herself. Her clear gray eyes make an impression on Maigret. Then she is murdered, suffocated, and an investigation ensues. The police search and question, after all this is a police procedural. Maigret discovers that the victim had practiced twenty five years of thrift. A character named Le Grand Marcel is brought into the picture.

The fineness of the writing (translated?) transcends the genre. Picking up a Maigret novel is a matter of dealing in a brand name consumer good. One is never disappointed. The storytelling is simple, classical, felicitous. Simenon used masterful economy in his art. The short bursts of information create an almost Raymond Carverish style. One is transported to Paris in the Spring. Time spent in the company of Maigret and his gifted inspectors Lapointe, Lucas, and Janvier is a pleasure.

Included in this Omnibus are three of the first four 'Inspector Maigret' books (more like novellas) that Simenon wrote in 1931. They are both a police procedural as well as a murder mystery. They evoke a time between the two world wars that are seldom written about. You can feel the undercurrents of the French when they speak about the Germans or the Russians and still feel the 'grittiness' that followed the end of WW1.

Maigret is a large man for his times, he never smiles or laughs and sometimes will muse about his time in the 'trenches'. He knows the effect his size has on people and is not afraid to use it to intimidate witnesses or to get what he wants. His pipe is part of his hand and mouth and seldom found in his pocket. He is the kind of man who when he stands in front of you demands respect and attention to what he wants. Even before he announces that he is an 'Inspector of Police' people know that he has authority and will use it.

There are three stories included in this collections: 'Crime at Lock 14' which was the story in which he was introduced. It is a story of love, hurt and abandonment, and the ending is quite unexpected. 'Maigret and the 100 Gibbets' presents a problem to Maigret that comes from his constant need to understand why things happen. It is very much influenced by Edgar Allen Poe and the ending is 'Poe-ish' in style. 'The Strange Case of Pietr the Lett' hinges on finding out how one man can be in so many places at the same time, but never really there. The criminal is from that part of Europe that has undergone huge upheavals because of the end of WW1, and the break-up of the Russian Empire.

You have to keep in mind, the 'times' these stories are written in, they are post-WW1 Europe, that has been two years into the "Great Depression". Life is hard and most people see no future, just day to day drudgery and maybe starvation or life on the streets. At the same time, 'The Rich' are so far above the average person or worker to make them almost invisible. Money is power and people fear those who have it and know how to use its' power.

Read this book is a like a journey in the past (the firties) in the sailor's world and in the passion.

The atmosphere is splendid, the characters are interesting. The story is superb.

Read it you will not waste your time.

One of the very best Maigrets, in my opinion, and I've read most of them. This one is particularly memorable for its brilliantly evocative atmosphere.

This title is an English invention, unhappily signalling a facetiousness absent from a sombre Simenon story about double murder, decdence, broken lives and betrayal. A literal translation from the French is 'The Carter Of The 'Providence'', but perhaps that was seen as too leading, even if it was Simenon's choice; another alternative, 'The Crime At Lock 14' is the most satisfying, centring on the important aspect of the novel: place. 'Milord' is set in that strange, marginal, now obsolete inter-war world of canal barges, perhaps most familiar from contemporary films of the period, such as 'Boudu Saved From Drowning' or 'L'Atalante'. Indeed, the star of those films, Michel Simon, would have been an obvious choice to play the main non-Migret character in any film of this book, the carter Jean, a taciturn giant whose face and tattooed body are buried in a mass of hirsute overgrowth, a man who sleeps in dumb animal warmth with his horses in the barge stable, and into whose eyes Maigret can't decide whether to read imbecility or the keenest intelligence.

A beautiful, rich, well-dressed woman is found strangled between two sleeping carters in the tavern stable at Dizy, Lock 14. She is the wife of an elderly English aristocrat, disgraced Colonel Lampson, who is sailing along the canal tribuatry of the Marne on his luxury yacht The Southern Cross with his sleazy but charming companion Willy Marco, and his fat Chilean mistress. Despite his bearing and stiff-upper-lip, the Colonel conducts regular drunken orgies on board his yacht, and tolerated his wife's affair with Marco. The other principal boat in the story is the huge barge The Providence, run by a small, timid skipper, his garrulous, kindly wife and the carter Jean.

Simenon characterises barge-life as a kind of shadow-world adjacent to, but unknown to, normal life around it, with its own codes, customs and language. Although these are floating homes, not tied to any one place and potentially unstable, their slow, regular movements up and down the river, and the rules they must abide by are as rigid, claustrophobic and monotonous as any settler's. But Simenon brilliantly captures the sense of a shifting communal life, competitive (the dense traffic on a small stretch of water means much jostling for pole position), but full of cameraderie and good humour, helping out friends in trouble, carrying messages from relatives, tipping canal-side officials.

For a rooted outsider like Maigret, this world seems enchanted, his inability to crack the case matched by a terrible sense of suspension hanging over the twilit realm - it is only by breaking out of it, asserting his mobility by bicycle, that he can regain his detective prowess. Before that, he learns many fascinating facts about the mechanics of barge life, as well as its drabness and colour, its hierarchies of boats and petty bendings of the law, the land men, women and buildings who service it (lock-keepers, tavern- and shop-owners); a group world of work and routine in which transgressive individual desire can have the direst consequences.

The way Simenon himself, like a narrative elastic band, suspends the tension, allowing us to soak in the character and atmosphere, before accelerating the suspense and action, is so gripping, this must count as an exceptional early Maigret.

for any Simenon fans. As always- Simenon is economical in expression- but still giving a full picture of the scene. I love this book because it allows- in one of the short stories- a closer look at Madame Maigret- and her personality. She is a shadowy character in the series, but always present.
The Holiday themed cover that is curently being used, makes it a nice Holiday gift as well. I also like that it is a bit longer than the usual Maigret- maning that it makes a good gift for someone about to go on a long train/plane or automobile trip!

In the mid-eighteen hundreds Mr. Poe invented the genres of modern literature, never to be surpassed in most. He invented the detective story in The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales (Modern Library Classics) long before Holmes and Watson stalked in poor imposture their apartment in Baker Street. Poe's Auguste Dupin of Paris is the original, and the best.

One hundred years later Frenchman Georges Simenon created the long lived Inspector Maigret, whose brilliance, subtlety, insight and patience are unmatched in detective literature.

Unfortunately in our fallen age all that many know of the French detective is the banal and tiresome Inspector Clouseau; nevertheless, the proud and fascinating characters of DuPin and Maigret will long outlast that forgetable farce.

I admit I have long been a fan of Maigret, and of Simenon, whose long career embraced other novels of profound psychological interest, including Strangers in the house: Les inconnus dans la maison. I often grate at the unfortunate, traitorous and out-dated translations made into incompetent English (does anyone still use the word "vexed?"); yet I admit often enjoying the English cassette recordings, including recently the poorly mistitled (Errol Garner style) Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper (Inspector Maigret Mysteries) or that series's compelling recording of None of Maigret's Business.

As a devoted fan admiring all things Maigret I therefore noticed the extremely accessible price of this present item, and thought it might be some brief momento of the immortal Inspector. Imagine thereafter my astonishment and my joy open receiving by mail this substantial volume, about 5 x 8 inches and over 325 pages long, a collection of nine tales written around 1950, translated by Jean Stewart.

Maigret here, after a very touching and telling and caring domestic scene, investigates a sighting of Santa; in another tale he employs a choirboy in the solving of a crime, and later follows a purposeful trail left by a child fleeing a criminal. We read here therefore another side of Maigret, as he works with and for children, always with the keenest psychological insight and subtlety of the author.

Look not here for Clouseau; the true humour here is much more subtle, much deeper, more true and real. Look not here for Kojak nor for blazing gunfire and shoot outs with hoodlums. Here you find no Mickey Spillane, but a patient, quiet, profound reflection of the people and the city of Paris in the post-war years, with no direct mention of that devastating and divisive war.

Here you will find nine excellent tales from this master storyteller. You will not be disappointed, but will find much to read and to reflect and to remember when life was like this, to rediscover our human nature.

Truly the continual portraiture of the intimate, quiet and deeply caring domestic life of Inspector and Madame Maigret must be read now in this era in which literature and we ourselves have lost this. Read this and remember, and receive the greatest gift of Maigret's Christmas, the great and unstated love of this matrimony.

Typically, a Maigret novel is easy reading. Four or five hours of light reading is all it takes to read a very good crime story. This lightness allows one to go on a Maigret binge where in the course of a week, two or three novels can polished off.

Miagret's Christmas is a collection of nine short stories. Some of the short stories are not so short, they are more like novellas. At 320 pages of small print, this book is by no means light reading. It took me a couple of weeks to finish the book.

Of the nine stories, I found four of them to be classic Georges Simenon. They were world class in their cleverness. The other five were good but not great. However, Georges Simenon's good is most writers very best. All and all a great book but a bit of slog.

These stories are excellent. All nine pose intriguing puzzles for Maigret and his colleagues to solve. What makes them special is the quality of the writing (just enough words to convey the image and no more) and the subtlety of the author who always seems to add a little bit more to the reader's perception of Maigret. There are great scenes between Maigret and his wife, Madame Maigret. Anyone married for any length of time will enjoy these little domestic battles. There are also some well drawn child characters whose interaction with Maigret is skillfully depicted. The reader always ends up admiring Maigret for his thoughtfulness and his persistance. He asks great questions of the witnesses to draw out the story. This collection of stories is outstanding.

When I first saw the title of this book all I could think of was oh no, another saves the century for the ages with one more literary anthology. The Ancient Library at Alexandria could never have contained more papyrus than we have currently available some short story theme involving the century. Though I have fully enjoyed each of the previous collections leisurely reading them over a couple of weeks (which seems like a century when compared to my normal pace), I vowed no more. Than I opened this book just to glimpse at who contributed and soon was hooked again all because Lawrence Block submitted a Batman tale.

Once again the quality is top rate as the thirty-six well-written stories run much of the suspense gamut submitted by a notable cast of writers. The tales include police and legal procedurals as well as the classic private sleuth investigative story among the assortment of other twist and turn tales. None of the stories shortchanges the ensemble, as this is a triumphant aggregation that is worth unhurriedly reading over a couple of weeks.

Harriet Klausner

Certainly Jeffery Deaver should know good mysteries when he sees them, and in his
personal compilation of a century of these great stories, the reader should assume it's just that, a
collection of great stories! And they are! Deaver exercises an ecumenical spirit here, practically
running the gamut of the genre!

It goes without staying that short stories generally don't carry the impact that novels do on
the same subject (not to patronize short stories, of course, as they are great in their own "write").
With the exception of some personal favorites of mine, such as P.D. James and Ellis Peters, which
he omits, Deaver's wide assortment of writers is a real treasure! For students of the history of the
suspense story, Deaver shows off Anna Katherine Green's story (Ms Green is often considered to
have written the first American suspense novel) to provide a historical perspective, and then
continues on down the time line. Such luminaries as Ellery Queen, John D. MacDonald, Ruth
Rendell, Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, Sara Paretsky, and Robert Barnard light up these pages.
Indeed, a nice collection to keep around. Fun reading, too! (...)

A small, quiet French village dominated by a sense of social status is well described in this novel by Georges Simenon. The book has an amazing sense of atmosphere, of believable characters and situations, of the dark world in the pouring rain in which the three victims die... The moral of the book is concerned with the social statuses of the characters, of how the normal people despise the aristocracy, how the aristocracy despise the aristocracy and the citizens. The book is, like all Simenon, well-written and believable, even in the most fantastic situations, dragging the reader onwards and onwards, unable to put the book down.

If you have to read a book and are entering the 12th grade or beyond this is the one to read, it has suspense on every page and it's interesting, If i can read the whole thing anyone can, time passes by quickly when you read a good book and this is a great one trust me

An old family firm is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy; the surviving family members live in bizarre poverty within the crumbling premises - and inexplicably there is a murder. Into a half-lit world of genteel despair stumbles Chief Inspector Maigret. Harassed by a vindictive lawyer, uncomfortable under the supercilious eye of a you examining magistrate, the inspector struggles to launch an investigation. Nothing, it seems, can penetrate the family's wall of silence - until Maigret learns of a black sheep, a banished daughter who is a hostess in a notorious club where women dress as men. The investigation drives the inspector through a façade of respectability and into the dark interior of criminal degeneracy. Families are by nature secretive; Maigret finds out why.

These Maigret stories are full cast productions by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from the mid-1970's. Dramatized by Frederick Spoerly, " Maigret and the Reluctant Witness" also includes "Maigret Hesitates" and "Maigret in Society." Fans of Georges Simenon's Chief Inspector Maigret can join Maigret aided by Sgt. Lukor and Inspector LaPlant as he conducts his investigation. Enjoyable listening from a world famous mystery writer.

I never went to the US and this very good novel gave me some keys in order to understand the american society and the differences with old Europ (and especially with France). And, I realise that, with global world market, the cultural differences between states are becoming smaller and smaller ! May be it's a shame ...

Georges Simenon's erstwhile, clever, venerable Parisian detective Maigret is off on a different mission this time; or rather, off to a different location! It's to America he's off to, and, of course, in no time he becomes involved in a local murder. A young woman is found dead and the companions with whom she had been socializing are now testifying in the coroner's inquiry. But Maigret sees something is amiss! Unfortunately, the brilliant Frenchman is caught in a bind--for one, he has

no legal authority here in Arizona, and for two, the French method of interrogation and inquiry is not the same! But not to worry, Maigret has his day, eventually, as "truth will out," as it always does with Simenon and Maigret. Another good read by this prolific author. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

The setting is Paris in the early 1960's. The venerable Inspector Maigret is nearing retirement age and growing increasingly stout. Paris is hit once again by a series of jewell heists. Maigret has known for twenty years that the Corsican crime boss Manuel Palmari has been behind the crimes. Over the years, Maigret has developed respect and even professional admiration for Palmari. During the middle of the latest crime spree, the wheelchair bound Palmari is found murdered in his apartment. This is Maigret's opportunity to unravel a mystery that has been bothering him for 20 years. This story has all the classic elements that Jules Maigret fans love.

Georges Simenon's Maigret Bides His Time provides an unabridged Jules Maigret mystery telling of a detective plagued by jewelry store heists - in the daylight. The Parisian inspector has his hands full, and Clifford Norgate's background in Shakespearean drama brings the underlying drama to life in this mystery.

Feeling more than a little mortal, the famous Inspector Maigret has been instructed by his physician to take the cure at Vichy. He and Mme. Maigret speedily develop a daily routine at the spa, and an interest in the characters they see around them. The most enigmatic of these personalities is one they name "the lady in lilac." Will Maigret be able to resist becoming involved when this lady becomes the center of a murder investigation?

I was in my twenties when I first read this beautifully observed and gently humorous novel, and I fell in love with it. Now older than Maigret is at the period of the book, I have just re-read it and found it even more poignant (and amusing) than before. Though it is not the typical Maigret, it is my favorite.

Maigret has been ordered to take the healing mineral waters at a famous city, giving him the opportunity to observe the investigation of a local crime and, naturally, solve it. Simenon's strong points are characterization and a vivid sense of locale, rather than a bang-up, surprise ending, but he gives us a neat little mystery here that unfolds at the end almost like a Christie. We also get to see much more of the pleasant, gentle Madame Maigret, and the sweet relationship of the Maigrets. My favorite of the series, even without Lucas, "fat" Torrence, and the whole gang back at Quai des Orfevres.