Georges Simenon Books

his brain is squirming like a toad." Jim Morrison.

Inspector and Mrs. Maigret usually have a very pleasant evening when they have dinner at the flat of Dr. and Mrs. Pardon. They enjoy good food, good conversation and the company of old friends. However, on this rainy night in Paris their evening is ruined when one of Dr. Pardon's patients rushes in to tell them that a man has been brutally knifed and killed on the Boulevard just down the street. The victim, Antoine Batille, is the son of a wealthy perfume manager. Maigret, by dint of his arriving at the scene with his friend the Doctor, takes charge of the investigation. A loner, Antoine does not seem the sort to make enemies or to make anyone angry enough to get stabbed almost a dozen times. However, Batille did have a hobby unusual enough for Maigret to launch an investigation. Batille was in the habit of taking a portable tape-recorder (a new and unusual gadget when this story was written in 1969) and taping random conversations in bars and bistros across Paris. As the story continues we see Maigret following a lead provided by the tape recorder. It seems that an easy solution is at hand. But Maigret sees something that takes him on a path that seems contrary to the evidence. As the plot unfolds we see Maigret following two paths, leaving the reader to guess which path leads to a solution.

I enjoyed "Maigret and the Killer" for a couple of reasons. Maigret is aging. He has been on the force now for over thirty-five years (I think Simenon penned the first Maigret in 1933 or so.) He is eyeing retirement and longs for life in the country cottage he and his wife purchased a while back. Perhaps because of his age Maigret also has a very strong sense of how best to bring in a suspect and get that suspect to the point where he has no choice but to confess. That is the path he takes here, much to the annoyance of the Magistrate who would prefer a quick arrest and prosecution. Maigret has a certain sense here that justice will best be served if he lets the object of the investigation talk himself into making a statement. George Simenon does an admirable job in setting the scene. As always, Simenon does not indulge in excess prose, but his compact sentences always manage to convey a certain sense of the character of Maigret and the characters that he encounters. The dialogues between Maigret and his primary suspect are compelling and bespeak an acute awareness of the human condition. The fact that he manages to do this with less rather than more words makes it all the more remarkable.

Once again, George Simenon delivers a thoughtful, well-paced and insightful Maigret story. Recommended. L. Fleisig.

One of the last of about 400 novels by Georges Simenon, "Maigret et l'homme tout seul" (published in 1971, set in 1965) is one of the more complicated Chief Inspector Maigret cases. The body of fastidiously coiffured man who has been shot is found amidst a vast accumulation of junk in a house slated for demolition one muggy Paris summer day. There are no clues about who the dead man is, so before trying to find out who killed him and why, Maigret must first figure out who he was and how he came to be where he was shot.

There is a very bitter wife (a recurrent figure in Simenon fiction, especially "The Cat") and some long-ago passions, and a long-ago (just after WWII) unsolved murder case that Maigret reopens in his quest to understand why (as much or more than who) killed the derelict. The investigation involves Maigret going to the Mediterranean coast in a quite humorous sortie. As usual, he eats well, though he was curbing his intake of beer on his physician's orders in this top-notch police procedural novel.

An elegant blond holds the key to both a murder and its motive.

When Maigret receives an urgent call from his friend Dr. Pardon he responds immediately, despite the late hour; it seems that the doctor had just treated an apparently wealthy woman for a suspicious gunshot wound, but before he could notify the authorities she disappeared with her companion. The doctor's story gains some perspective when the same woman turns up at the house on Avenue de Parc-Montsouris where Felix Nahour has just been found - shot to death. This is a masterful exploration of the twin passions of love and hate as they mingle in the shadowy mind of a criminal.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (February 13, 1903-September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French.

The Maigret series are a refreshing alternative to the contempory mysteries of today. There is no explicted detail of the crime, no over the top fiction, but when you read a Maigret mystery you get a swift, interesting read with suspensful dialouge and clever twists. This story in particular is about the curious, pathetic, cleft lipped Leonard Planchon who after many failed attempts to contact the suscessful, celebrity like Detective Maigret with letter, reluctantly finds himself in the detective's home to confess a crime not yet comitted. See, Leonard's marriage is a joke to his employees and anyone who knows them. You almost can't feel bad for him. A once suscessful man running a home decorating business finds his life taken over by an employee, an intimidating, handsome man who bullies his way into taking over Planchon's business and then Planchon's wife. Moving into Planchon's home, replacing Planchon's spot in bed next to his wife, all that keeps Planchon from sleeping, without dignity, stubbornly on a cot in the dinning room is his young daughter who he loves deeply. With low self esteem due to his disfigured mouth, all Planchon feels he can do to keep his daughter safe is to kill his wife and her lover, the man who has invaded his life. He goes to tell Maigret before attempting the murder, which frustrates Maigret because he can't quite put his finger on what Planchon wants him to do. He reluctantly follows the pathetic man and comes to find out the ridiculous life he claims to live is more saddening than thought possible, the true woman who calls herself his wife, and a murder twist that results in a shocking trial. I enjoyed this book for it's intense dialouge and a story, I feel, to be a little ahead of it's time. This book can be read in one sitting, and if you enjoy this book there is an entire collection of Maigret stories well worth adding to the mystery lover's book shelf. A complete classic.

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Maigret Goes Home (published in 1932, first published in English in 1940) is among the best stories by Simenon that I have encountered. It takes place in 1928, early in Maigret's career, and involves a unique visit to Maigret's childhood home, the village of Saint-Fiacre. Maigret Goes Home is a compelling story, one in which the mystery puzzle, the characters themselves, their psychology, and the intriguing locale all share front stage.

Maigret is investigating an anonymous note warning that a death will occur during the first Mass on All Soul's Day at Saint-Fiacre. With Maigret in attendance, Countess de Saint-Fiacre dies during the mass from heart failure. Maigret is convinced of foul play, but evidence is lacking.

The aristocratic family of de Saint-Fiacre has suffered financial and moral decline since the death of Count some years ago. As Maigret's investigation proceeds, his disappointment with his childhood home grows. Nonetheless, Maigret's remains influenced by vestiges of his childhood admiration for the imposing Count de Saint-Fiacre, now dead for many years. The suspects are many, and the ending is less predictable than some Maigret stories.

My copy of Maigret Goes Home is a good quality, standard size paperback published by Harvest Books in 1990. Translated by Robert Baldick. The inside cover lists about forty Maigret titles available from Harvest Books. For those new to Georges Simenon, he wrote 75 novels and 28 short stories involving the highly popular Maigret from 1931 to 1972.

Note: Simenon did not adhere to a strict chronological sequence. That is, later stories often returned to a younger Maigret. Furthermore, many Maigret stories were not translated to English until many years after their release in France. Consequently, the English publication date is not a reliable indication to the time period of a particular Maigret story.

Maigret in Exile is decidedly among my favorites. The copyright is 1942, a time when France was under German occupation. In Georges Simenon's fictional world of his Chief Superintendent Maigret, there is no direct mention of the war. However, Maigret has fallen into disfavor and has been reassigned from Paris to the post of divisional superintendent in remote Lucon. No one - including his wife - knows why. His new routine activities do indirectly suggest that something is amiss in France: he is concerned with a group of Poles that needed watching, the failure of some unspecified individuals to produce identity cards, and contraventions of restricted travel orders, etc.

The situation changes quickly when a sixty-four year old woman, Adine Hulot, specifically asks for Maigret; she reports that for two days a corpse has been lying on the bedroom floor in the adjacent villa, the home of Judge Forlacroix, formerly a magistrate at Versailles. The corpse is clearly visible from atop a ladder leaning against an apple tree. Adine and her husband have kept watch for two days. They believe that the judge will dispose of the body when the tide comes in tonight. And so begins a classic Maigret mystery.

Chief Inspector Maigret's home locale is Paris, but occasionally Maigret ventures elsewhere. His excursions into rural, provincial France are particularly fascinating. If you enjoy Maigret in Exile, I recommend the two following stories.

Maigret Goes Home (published in 1932, first published in English in 1940) is among the best stories by Simenon that I have encountered. It takes place in 1928, early in Maigret's career, and involves a unique visit to Maigret's childhood home, the village of Saint-Fiacre. Maigret Goes Home is a compelling story, one in which the mystery puzzle, the characters themselves, their psychology, and the intriguing locale all share front stage.

Maigret Goes to School (December, 1953) is another of my favorites. On an early, dazzling spring day Maigret accepts a plea to help a schoolmaster accused of murder in the small coastal community of Saint-Andre-sur-Mer. Maigret recognizes that his decision was perhaps less influenced by the claimant's plea and more by his own memories of white wine and fresh oysters characteristic of the Charentes region.

I'm french and this superb novel gave me two impressions on USA :

- On the one hand USA is the country where it's struggle for life (more than in Europe),
- And on the other hand, USA is an incredible source of vitality and creation.

May be these impressions are false, but it's not a problem for me : I never go to the USA and the most important, for me, is that this novel seems to present the truth.

Many years ago when I first encountered Simenon's Maigret, I was unimpressed. Now after reading and sometimes rereading the Maigret novels, I am a devoted fan. The Maigret novels are consistently good and do not get into a formula routine. I would say Maigret's strengths are his understanding (even sympathy) for the criminal and his ability to listen. The 3 novels in this book illustrate these talents.

"Maigret's Failure" - Maigret is assigned to protect a wealthy businessman who claims his life is in danger. This man is from Maigret's childhood village. Maigret didn't like him as a boy and likes him less as an obnoxious arrogant tycoon. Maigret fears his dislike is affecting his ability.

"Maigret in Society" - Maigret is assigned to a case where the victim and the most likely suspects are all in the highest levels of French society. Maigret and he feels ill in this new world with different rules.

"Maigret and the Lazy Burglar" - Due to a reorganization of the police, Maigret cannot officially work on a murder case where the victim is a burglar he has known for years. Needless to say, he does indeed 'solve' the murder.

I was disappointed in this collection, and it really doesn't show Simenon at his best. In fact, I can't honestly say there is a single compelling story here, which is certainly not something one usually says about Simenon!