Georges Simenon Books

Florentin had been at school with Maigret. His friend Josee died the afternoon he arrived at Maigret's office. She had been shot. Her murder did not cause a stir in the neighborhood. Florentin took her money after her death. He claimed that she had not been close to her sister, (her family).

Maigret finds having to deal with a former schoolfellow a wretched business. It turns out that the woman had had four lovers and for the most part they did not know about each other. Maigret obtains a warrant to search the place of the concierge. The quarters of the woman are mean and close and Maigret almost feels ashamed of himself for pursuing his offical duties.

The old school friend had tried blackmail. Maigret considers that literally thousands of people lived in Paris subsisting on the borderline of crime. It is discovered that the actions of Florentin set off a chain reaction of events. The puzzle is intricate. Simenon's tale, here, is quite good.

There is a definite reason why a French language novel written in 1968 by a Belgian crime writer was translated into English and reissued in 2004. Simply, "Maigret's Boyhood Friend" is a tour de force.

Georges Simenon is the master of the psychological police procedural. His hero, Jules Maigret is the rumpled middle aged Chief of the Paris Criminal Investigation Section. He solves his crimes because he has deep understanding human nature and the psychic abberations that can lead to murder. The pleasure of a good Maigret story is to watch him through the use of skillful interrogations and crime scene investigation solve complex mysteries.

In this story, Jules Maigret's boyhood friend whom he has not seen in 20 years comes to ask for help. The former class clown, is now the kept man of a kept woman. She is murdered and he is afraid that he will be arrested. The suspects include the Maigret's boyhood friend and the dead woman's four lovers. To solve this mystery, Maigret must win a psychological battle with an imposing building concierge who is refusing to tell him what she knows. Classic Maigret material.

In this book, Simenon steps back and shows us Maigret "in his own words". Simenon himself appears in the character of "Georges Sim"-- an annoying young writer who starts to shadow the inspector. Maigret tells us how it feels to find yourself a character in a novel. He also sets the record straight on as many points as possible.

I normally really like Simenon as a writer. I think his work is great, actually. His strength is the examination of the extraordinary within the ordinary. I also like the concept of this kind of mirror book. Unfortunately, Maigret's Memoirs has a lightweight feel when placed against Simenon's other novels. What could have been interesting is merely clever, and that is too bad. I still enjoyed it, but only because I have read so many Maigret novels that it was fun to have the details of his life filled in.

This book should appeal to serious Maigret fans, but I would recommend that you have read at least four or five of the other books before you pick up this one.

It was one of those non-descript days in the winter of 1927 or 1928, when Jules Maigret was called into Chief Inspector Xavier Guichard's office. The Chief wanted Inspector Maigret to show the young writer Georges Simenon around the Quai des Orfevres. The twenty four year old Simenon followed Maigret around the headquarters and asked him about his cases.

A few months later, Maigret found on his desk a copy of the book, The Girl with the Pearl Necklace. To his great surprise, he learned that without his permission he had become a character in Simenon's new novel! As time went on, Maigret found himself and his cases in more of Georges Simenon's novels. Soon the real and fictional Jules Maigret's lives became intertwined.

Maigret's Memoirs is Jules Maigret's attempt to tell his side of his strange relationship with Georges Simenon and the Inspector Maigret he created. This book will be of interest to all Inspector Maigret fans. We learn of his childhood and his early years on the police force. Through his memoirs, Jules Maigret is able to fill out the real Maigret that Simenon has drawn upon as inspiration for his novels.

As I understand it the term "observer effect" stands for the proposition that the act of observing changes the act of the person or thing being observed. In Georges Simenon's "My Friend Maigret" we get a story in which "observer effect" is fully in play. The result is another good Simenon "Maigret" mystery.

"My Friend Maigret" open with the good Inspector Maigret going about his normal routine in Paris. Much to Maigret's chagrin he finds himself in the company of one Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard who accepted an invitation from the chief of the Paris police to come to Paris to see the great Maigret at work. As luck would have it Maigret is advised that a murder has been committed in Porquerolles, an island of the coast of Provence in the south of France. This would normally not be of interest to the Paris police but on the night of the murder the victim (a small-time career criminal) had been heard bragging about his good friend Inspector Maigret. So Maigret finds himself getting on a train and ferry, with Inspector Pyke in tow, to the warm and sunny island to conduct an investigation.

The investigation/plot is pretty standard fare for detective mysteries. There is a murder and a small set of potential killers from a wide variety of backgrounds. What sets "My Friend Maigret" apart from the run of the mill story is the exotic location, Simenon's spare but arch writing, and Maigret's ongoing self-consciousness derived from being observed constantly by the quiet British observer.

All in all this was a pretty good story but far from being one of Simenon's best Maigret mysteries. Nonetheless, average Simenon remains a cut above the average for this genre. Fans of Simenon and Maigret should enjoy "My Friend Maigret". However, as someone who gladly prmotes Maigret at every opportunity, I don't think this would be a good introduction for a reader new to the Maigret mysteries. I think Lock 14 (Inspector Maigret Mysteries), Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard (Inspector Maigret), or Inspector Cadaver (Inspector Maigret Mysteries)would make for a better starting point for anyone interested in Maigret. Once Maigret has a chance to grow on you, "My Friend Maigret" will make for an enjoyable read. L.Fleisig

An inspector from Scotland Yard comes to France to observe the police methods of the great detective Maigret as he investigates a crime. As the stoic British policeman follows Maigret around, both men feel awkward because Maigret has no methods, other than his characteristic investigative technique of immersing himself in the atmosphere of the place and in the lives of the persons involved until he knows them so well that he understands how the crime must have happened. This is a classic Maigret.

This was a book to be read by any thinking adult. It feels so quiet, because of his silence. On the other hand his thoughts are screaming to come out. The book has hope written all over it. Like all good books, it has tragedy and humor. Don't pass this one up!

In this 1967 novel (one of roughly 400 published before his 1973 retirement), Georges Simenon portrayed an elderly couple that had come to hate each other. It is not that they had been living together for decades. Both had outlived earlier spouses and wed eight years before. Marguerite fancies herself a fine lady. She still owns some buildings, though her father once owned the whole street, which is named for him. Emile was a working man who helped her with a burst pipe and stayed around. He dotes on a cat that Emile cannot stand for a number of reasons, including concern about her own pet, a parrot.

While he is sick, she poisons the cat. He takes vengeance on the tail feathers of the parrot, worries about being poisoned himself, runs away (not very far to a room above the bar his sometimes sexual partner runs) for a while. Marguerite is humiliated by his departure and silently implores him to return, where they continue to prepare food separately and communicate only by notes. As the houses across the street (which her father once owned) are being loudly demolished, several time, "he almost spoke to her; he wanted to say something, anything, appeasing words. He realized that it was too late now and that neither of them could turn back." They are together until death doth them part.

The novel is a portrait of savage marital disgust for each other, strongly ( but not entirely) slanted to the grievances of the man. Simenon seems to share Emil's view that "she needed to be unhappy, a victim of men's wickedness," forgetting no outrage to her refined sensibility and not recognizing any faults of her own. Husbands getting fed up and leaving was a recurrent theme for Simenon (M. Monde Vanishes). "The Cat" was filmed with Jean Gabin and Simone Signoret as a couple who had once loved each other, a past unlike the one Simenon supplied the characters.

There are five exciting & accomplished novels in this book: Maigret in Montmartre, Maigret's Mistake, Maigret Has Scruples, Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses, and Maigret Goes to School. Simenon's Maigret novels have been highly praised by Hemingway and Maugham, as well as by literary critics. In these, we watch him investigate the murder of a striptease girl, and that of the mistress of an eminent brain surgeon. He tries to forestall death in the curious case of the electric-train salesman who suspects his wife of attempting to murder him. In a decrepit mansion by the Seine, he gropes for the solution of a murder among reluctant witnesses. And in throwing light on who killed a vicious old woman, he defends a teacher against the prejudice of a village. Maigret is more than a detective; he is a consummate and compassionate psychologist. In all five stories, the tension is acute, the reasoning brilliant, and the atmosphere superb. He is generally regarded as the most popular and prolific novelist of our time, besides being considered the perfect narrative stylist.

The book is good, but it was published years ago as "Madame Maigret's Own Case." So beware of duplication.

Georges Simenon was the author of over 100 Inspector Maigret mystery stories. They were immensely popular in the 1930s through the 1960s. Inspector Maigret stories also appeared in film and TV version. Simenon also authored dozens of books described as "romans durs", `hard stories' that had a darker tone than his Maigret novels. Simenon seems to have fallen under the radar in recent decades but in recent years he seems to have been rediscovered by a new generation of mystery/detective story fans. Penguin Books has begun to reissue some of those Maigret mysteries and the New York Review of Books Press has reissued some of his `hard stories', dark novels that did not feature Inspector Maigret. Penguin's latest Inspector Maigret Mystery reissue, "The Hotel Majestic" is as good a place to start for anyone wishing to discover (or re-discover) Simenon.

As with most police procedurals, the Hotel Majestic begins with a dead body. Mrs. Clark, a guest traveling with her wealthy American husband, their child and a governess, has been found murdered and stuffed into an empty locker in the basement of the Hotel Majestic. Maigret arrives to begin the investigation. His investigation quickly draws him into two parallel words: the world upstairs of champagne and caviar and the world downstairs filled with hotel employees eking out a living. Maigret's investigation begins with an examination into how and why these two different worlds collided in this brief but deadly incident. From there he proceeds to interview everyone and anyone who might have information about the crime of the victim. Maigret is no Sherlock Holmes. For Maigret, crimes are to be solved by a process of accumulating as much information as possible and then analyzing that information based on his past experience. Maigret plays hunches to be sure but Maigret's chief weapon is perseverance and determination. Consequently, the reader is presented with information about the crime and the protagonists in real time along with Maigret. As I read these stories I find myself absorbing these bits of information and trying to weigh them against the information previously disclosed. This served to keep me engaged throughout the book and caused me to keep turning page after page until the `final curtain'.

Simenon has a keen ear for dialogue and character development. Maigret is not a character that is revealed to the reader immediately. Simenon doesn't set about to provide you with a character map to Maigret's personality in any one book. Rather, he grows on you over time. He has an innate disdain for higher authority that is appealing. Simenon's settings and other characters also add a dash to his Maigret mysteries. These are not parlor room mysteries where the reader has to determine which upper-class member of the gentry (or the butler) committed murder most foul in the library. Simenon's stories have the feel of grit and the demimonde about them that adds a bit of spice to the `formula'. In Hotel Majestic, Simenon's description of the hard-streets and dark bars of Paris and the people that inhabit them all seem quite fully realized to me.

All in all, I find Simenon's Maigret mysteries to be consistently entertaining. They may not be as dark or foreboding as the novels released by New York Review of Books - but it you like well-written, taut, police procedurals you will like Georges Simenon's Hotel Majestic. Recommended. L. Fleisig

The prolific and immensely popular detective fiction writer, Georges Simenon, wrote The Innocents in 1972 toward the end of his lengthy career. It is one of his lesser known works, in part because it is not a detective novel and Simenon's greatest character, Inspector Maigret, doesn't appear make an appearance.

The protagonist, Georges, a talented artisan who is co-owner of a successful jewelry-making business, believes himself to be the most fortunate of men. His partner's business savvy makes it possible for Georges to devote himself to his art yet still make a comfortable living for himself, his wife of twenty years and their two teenagers. He is particularly content with his family life - his two children are well-behaved and never give him any cause for anxiety; his wife never complains and their live-in housekeeper makes sure everything runs smoothly.

When Georges's wife dies suddenly his perfect world falls apart. She is killed instantly when a truck hits her while she is crossing a street. Georges is emotionally unable to accept her death and, for the first time in his life, drinks himself into a stupor. Also for the first time, Georges begins to examine his marital relationship. He questions, not what his wife meant to him (he already has knows that), but rather what he meant to his wife. He begins to dwell on the disappointments in his marriage, for instance, his inability to physically satisfy his wife, his feelings of isolation when the children were born and his complete ignorance of his wife's work and interests.

His wife was a social worker. When she died, she was crossing the street in a well-to-do part of town far from her office and clientele. What was she doing in that part of town? She darted out in front of a truck without looking. What was the hurry? What was on her mind? When Georges ask other people for answers to these questions, more questions arise. She was seen running out of an elegant apartment building. Who was she visiting and why has that person never come forward and acknowledged that she was there? Slowly, it begins to dawn on Georges that he didn't know his wife at all and that the twenty years they shared meant something completely different to her than to him.

Knowing author Georges Simenon's reputation as a mystery writer, I was expecting a ripping detective story that would keep me guessing until the final page. What I found instead was the story of a grieving man's emotional journey. The book is a short study of the two very different types of grief that the protagonist feels simultaneously. The plot was somewhat predictable. The reader knows the answers to all of the protagonist's questions long before the protagonist figures them out. But that serves a purpose here. The reader, in effect, becomes one of the bystanders keeping secrets from the increasingly distraught protagonist. The psychological insights were the real surprise to this book. Only when I finished and reflected upon this book, did I realize how satisfying it was to read it.

Maigret Goes to School (December, 1953) is among my favorite Maigret stories. 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.

The community offers at best a frosty welcome to Maigret. Leonie Birard, a universally disliked, aging ex-postmistress, was shot through the eye by a 22-rifle. Almost anyone could have killed her with a lucky shot, but this close knit village concludes that the local school teacher, an outsider, was likely responsible and certainly there is no need for the presence of an intrusive inspector. Although unwelcome, Maigret understands the situation as he had lived in a small village in his childhood.

I have read a fair number of the Maigret mysteries, but spaced over so many years that I have largely forgotten which ones I have read. I periodically come back to these stories because Maigret is a friend, one that I only occasionally encounter, but one whose company I always enjoy. What makes Maigret Goes to School particularly interesting to me are Maigret's memories of his childhood and the insight they provide into his character.

The mystery is also intriguing. Maigret does not entirely rule out the schoolmaster, but he is a rather unlikely suspect, except for an accusatory statement made by one of his students. As usual, Maigret exercises patience, and does not jump to conclusions. Maigret's calm, persistent approach gradually reveals the solution.

If Maigret Goes to School appeals to you as it did me, I suggest reading Maigret Goes Home (1932), one of the earliest stories by Georges Simenon. Prior to 1967 Maigret Goes Home was published in English under the varied titles The Saint-Fiacre Affair, Death of a Countess, and Maigret and the Countess.