Мегре и трупът в кабинета

Inspector Maigret #38

by Georges Simenon, Жорж Сименон, Евгения Грекова (Translator)

Жорж Жозеф Кретиен Сименон (1903–1989), бащата на психологическия криминален роман, е роден в Лиеж. Написал е около 500 романа, като става популярен сред читателската аудитория със серията, посветена на разследванията на инспектор Мегре.
В една задушна лятна вечер инспекторът от френската полиция Мегре е обезпокоен от своя стара позната. Бившето “момиче на повикване” съобщава за труп в кабинета на най-уважавания зъболекар в града. Мегре се залавя с разследването, което го среща с ексцентрична стара дама и нейния син – тандем, който крие много тайни.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, France, Detective, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.

Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.

He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.

During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).

Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).

In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Историята за крадец, натъкнал се на труп по време на обир не е много оригинална, но Сименон я е развил отлично.

Но защо зъболекаря Сер отрича да е имало опит за кражба? Това трябва да научи комисаря Мегре, за да реши успешно още един зловещ случай!

Моята оценка - 3,5*.

Цитат:

"Наистина има такива дни, в които човек изведнъж започва да си задава разни глупави въпроси."

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only one complaint about this series, and this book in particular: they go by too fast. This was my favorite so far--a woman Maigret arrested years ago for theft who embarrassed him by stripping naked and refusing to go with him (and who is the "tall woman" of the title) comes to him to ask him find her boyfriend, a thief who discovered a dead woman while robbing an affluent dentist. But when Maigret investigates there is no body and the dentist denies having been robbed.

What follows is Simenon's usual character study as Maigret plays a cat and mouse game with the person he suspects of murder. It is tightly written and a little less predictable than I have found most of the Maigret series. I read it for the characters, more than the plot and to see how Maigret solves the cases (a bit like the old tv series Colombo where you knew who the murderer was from the start and watched to see how Colombo caught them).

As I said at the outset, I'm just unhappy because these books read so quickly. Luckily, there are a lot of them! I want to read them all but I know I will be sad when I finish. However, I have a long way to go!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simenon a brilliant Belgian writer, born in Liege [which is a proverbial stone throw away from where I live in the South of the Netherlands], is probably best known for his series about Maigret the French policeman. The pace in these books are never much higher than pedestrian, but they are full of characters that are fleshed out and recognizable. The Maigret stories are in general very good drawings of situations that went wrong and needs a policeman to bring the truth to the light.

Here the book opens with a lady of the night telling the story of her missing husband to the policeman who arrested her so long ago. Her husband being a burglar by profession has stumbled across a dead body and it made him run away without looking back. However he let his wife know what had happened and she does not want to see her husband in deep trouble decides to ask Maigret to investigate. And Maigret does so even when there is no body found but him encountering mother & son he decides that there might be more truth to the story of the burglar's wife.

Not one of the greatest Maigret stories but a great drawing of characters involved and a beautiful insight of a Paris and Europe of old. Simenon shows once more that he can write a detective in yet another way and make you want to read the story right to the end.

Most certainly not for the lovers of the modern thriller who need an adrenaline shot every so much pages.

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual in all these stories , the human nature, the atmosphere and Maigret's kindness are almost as important as the plot itself.
I've always seen Simenon as a contemporary Balzac, and perhaps even more...

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is classic Maigret and though it's midway through the series, it's also perfectly fine as a place to start for those new to Simenon. This new Penguin translation feels smooth and natural, and keeps some of the low-key humour of the originals.

Unlike many contemporary crime writers, Simenon doesn't believe in wasted words: he keeps things short, sharp and abbreviated, ditching all extraneous words. There are no 'he said/she saids' in the dialogues and Maigret doesn't let us into his own thought processes - we're left waiting, to some extent, like the ever-patient Mme Maigret, as the drama plays out in front of us.

Here we get a kind of crime-in-reverse plot as Maigret gets to learn of a dead body but isn't completely sure that a crime has actually been committed - it's not hard to work out what's really going on but the pleasure of these books is as much from atmosphere and following Maigret as in getting to the solution.

I first started reading these books when I was studying French at school since they're relatively easy reading in the original (partly because of the proportion of dialogue over exposition and description) so it's nice to find they're still fresh and now with an unclunky translation. A quick read of a couple of hours so perfect for commuting and travelling.

Thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley

[Mostafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

امتیاز : 3.5
مگره در این داستان با بهره گیری از روش های بازجویی فنی به گونه ای که واقعا خواننده را وادار به واکنش میکند ، داستان قتل دو نفر از همسران یک دندان پزشک را رمزگشایی میکند..
اهمیت این داستان که در سال ۱۹۵۱ نگارش شده ، بهره گیری از روش های نوین در کشف جرم از جمله بررسی صحنه جرم و استفاده از دستاوردهای علمی در حوزه
است (Forensic science)

[Antje · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diesen Maigret empfand ich ermüdend und konfus. Ich werde das Gefühl nicht los, dass sich Simenon hierbei ein wenig verkalkuliert hatte. Die Grundidee wirkt noch apart, während die Umsetzung deutliche Schwachpunkte aufweist und Spannungselemente gänzlich ausgespart wurden. Die Teilnahmslosigkeit Maigrets und seines Hauptverdächtigen wirkte sich zunehmend auf mich aus und mir war es letztlich egal, wie die Geschichte aufgelöst wurde - Hauptsache sie würde endlich ein Ende nehmen.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery of the missing corpse...

On a hot summer day in Paris when most people are on holiday, Maigret receives a visit from a tall woman who says he once arrested her. Ernestine tells him she is now married to a well-known safe-breaker, nicknamed Sad Freddie, who has been in and out of prison for years. On his latest job, according to the woman, Freddie discovered the body of a murdered woman in the house he was burgling, and has fled and gone into hiding, fearing he'll be suspected of killing her. Ernestine wants Maigret to find the real killer so her husband feels safe to come home. The only problem is no murder has been reported...

It's been many years since I last read a Maigret novel, but the recent Penguin re-issues in new translations piqued my interest in re-visiting him. This is the 38th in the series, so the character is well-established, and Simenon doesn't spend much time in this one filling in details of his personal life. It works perfectly as a standalone, as I believe most, if not all, of them do.

Simenon creates an authentic picture of a semi-deserted Paris sweltering in a summer heatwave. Partly due to this, and partly just because he seems to like to drink, Maigret spends an inordinate amount of time popping into cafés for a little glass of wine, or beer, or Pernod – lots and lots of Pernod, in fact. I had to stand back in awe at his sheer capacity – not many men start the day with a glass of white wine before heading off to work, and it must surely be a French thing for the police office to have an account with the nearby café to have regular supplies of Pernod sent round during an investigation. One can't help but feel Rebus would have been in his element over there...

However, joking aside, happily none of this constant imbibing leads to Maigret being a drunken detective – if anything, it all sharpens his brain. He is shown as doggedly persistent, worrying away at small clues until by sheer force of will he squeezes their meaning from them. The first thing he has to do in this case is establish that there has actually been a murder, and Ernestine helps by explaining how Freddie selects the houses he burgles. Even with this information, Maigret can find no victim and eventually begins to suspect that Ernestine is lying, or at least mistaken. But then he comes across a small inconsistency in the story of one of the people he has interviewed, and from there on it becomes a matter of breaking his suspect down through some pretty dodgy interviewing techniques – he's not averse to a bit of mild psychological torture to achieve his ends. The eventual solution is not quite as straightforward as it seems as if it's going to be, though, and along the way Simenon creates a chilling atmosphere of evil at work, and family dynamics gone horribly wrong.

Overall, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable read. It falls somewhere between novella and short novel in length, which again I think is standard for the Maigret series, so perfect to read in one evening. To contrast with the darkness of the crime, Maigret himself is rather laid-back and we get a great feeling of the delightful café culture of Paris. He loves his wife, and they regularly meet up (for drinks!) during the case – Maigret is quite capable of working all night if he has to, and making his men do the same, but he doesn't let work absorb him to the extent of neglecting his family life. In truth, the detection element relies on little more than guesswork and it all works out a little too easily perhaps, but the story is interesting for all that. It's well written with some humour to lighten the overall tone, and I found the translation by David Watson excellent. I'll certainly be keen to read more of the series and happily recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried Maigret before.

(This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret and the Burglar's Wife.)

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Penguin UK.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Previously "Maigret and the Burglar's Wife. A book I have read before and remember the faithful TV adaptation with Michael Gambon in the 90's.
Just over 3 years ago Penguin began reissuing all 75 of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels at a rate of one per month, commissioning new modern translation, returning to original titles and producing them in their original publication order.
With 'Maigret and the Tall Woman' I have now read 38 such titles and I am up to date with the ones so far issued. I remember as a child subscribing to weekly publications in 104 parts; initially discounted and rarely seen after 2 -3 months. A drain on pocket money and an expensive way to learn about a subject if your magazine ran its course.
With Penguin there were no concerns and they have faithfully just past half-way in this incredible enterprise. It is the mark of these books popularity that the interest persists today. Indeed in the UK on Christmas Day a new TV series, episode 2 goes out underlining the pull of this detective.
The reason I like this story so much and was delighted to be able to read its modern translation is two-fold. Firstly, it is a story where the crime appears to have gone unreported and Maigret receives a tip-off from a dubious source. Without a body he then has to work backwards to reach any measure of truth let alone justice; as in other cases he appears to be on the brink of giving up.
Secondly, the story focuses on evidence that although is a long time coming is meticulously sought. In the meantime Maigret has tremendous standoffs with those he assumes guilty and often fails to break them, trip them up or obtain a confession. Therefore, it shows the art of questioning that if any suspect can stick to their story can remainunable to be charged without sufficient evidence to support the case. Indeed if a lawyer was present in such an instance then as now their client could not have been held.
This trick of a dissappearing body has been used in many books and TV shows. "It was right here". As has the literary device of assumed/known guilt but no evidence. In Columbo he would always find a weakness and force the suspect's hand. In this clever plot Maigret has no real stage props other than a belief that takes time to truely form that he can win the day.
It reminds me that at the start of a number of his investigations Maigret says he doesn't know what he believes, yet he always has persistence and patience to watch and wait. Here he sees a potential scenario and then awaits facts to support or discount it. There is no magic the missing woman he says could turn up alive but if she's been killed he will find the ultimate truth.
As with Simenon's writing it has touches of humour. I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of summer here from Lucas's hat to Maigret struggles with a wasp. The story is also within a tight timeframe which isn't enforce through chapter headings but a constant stressing of when events take place.
A good place to dip your first toe into a Maigret story or refresh one's own memories from radio, TV or older versions of books that never seem to go out of circulation.
If you start here you have 37 books to read to catch me up and together we have anoth 37 to read.

[The Frahorus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se dovessi scegliere e consigliare a chi non ha ancora letto nulla di lui, tra i tanti letti romanzi gialli che hanno come protagonista il commissario Maigret, consiglierei certamente questo. Bellissima la caratterizzazione dei personaggi principali, soprattutto della famiglia del dottore e della ragazza alta, la famosa stangona del titolo, perfetta l'indagine che scorre lenta ma ti appassiona sempre di più, l'interrogatorio sfiancante che ti sfianca, insomma, Simenon quando scrisse questa indagine di Maigret era davvero in ottima forma. E si nota come Maigret non molla l'osso, continua a torchiare il presunto colpevole perché sa che nasconde qualcosa e presto i nodi verranno al pettine.

[Amaranta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un caso di cui fin dall’inizio si percepisce chi sia il colpevole. La curiosità del lettore sarà scoprire i trucchi che Maigret metterà in atto per smascherare l’autore del delitto.
Divertente, ironico, piacevolissima lettura!

[Judith Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed re-reading this 1959 edition (Penguin No. 1362) which was originally priced at half a crown (2/6d in old British sterling) and which I bought at the Compton Bookshop on Islington’s Upper Street for 10 pence in the late 1970s. I had completely forgotten the story in the intervening decades!

Love the Paris detail, and look forward to digging out some more Maigret. I remember watching Rupert Davies playing Maigret on the gogglebox in my childhood!

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one just keeps building to a virtual white-heat of tension.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lunchtime Listen of another Maigret October 2025

Narrated by Gareth Armstrong, this is yet another wonderful Maigret novel. We (my wife and I) will both be very disappointed when we listen to the last Maigret on audiobook, although it will have taken us a few years to listen to all 75, so maybe we just start a in !!

In this episode of Maigret he is approached by a woman he had arrested many years ago, who was worried that her burglar husband had disappeared after attempting to rob a big house one night. He head told her he was going on the run after seeing a body in the study where he was going to crack the safe. Despite the house being owned by an upstanding citizen, Maigret is inclined to believe the woman and her husband.
So whose was the body and why is it not there now. Maigret is informed by the house owner that his wife has lefty and gone to stay at her parents house in the Netherlands but Maigret starts to doubt his Tory. What then ensues is a battle of wills between Maigret and the equally physically imposing house owner. In the end though their can be only open winner, and Maigret finally completes the jpuzzle with enough evidence to arrest the man.

A brilliant novel and as ever wonderfully read.

[Paloma orejuda (Pevima) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues... Libro leído en francés y tengo que confesar que me ha costado la vida, pero es que leerlo en el trabajo no ayudó.

Sabía que Simenon era un clásico y había escuchado de Maigret por la tele (me parece que hay series de TV o algo así), así que cuando vi el libro abandonado en una caja de la escalera, no dudé en cogerlo.

**Alerta Spoiler!!

Pero la cosa es que la trama se me hizo lenta y pesada, demasiado larga.
Me gustó el principio, con Alfred el triste robando las cajas fuertes y la sorpresa que se da. También la anécdota de "La grande perche" y Maigret. Luego empezó el tostón con el tira y afloja con el dentista y su madre. Y bueno, el final no estuvo mal. Era muy obvio lo mala que era la vieja... pero Maigret consiguió ganarle la partida y evitó de paso un nueva muerte.
Pas mal... pero aburridillo.

En fin 2 estrellas sobre 5 porque esperaba más de Maigret y Simenon.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Никога не съм бил фен на криминалните романи, но Мегре не е лош. Джордж Сименон не прекалява със загадъчността и мистериозността, нито прави от детектива някакъв супергерой. Той по-скоро набляга на полицейската процедура и на обикновения живот, който Мегре води, докато върши спокойно работата си.

В тази книга ми направи впечатление (това може и в другите да го има, тук го забелязах просто), колко много се пие в работно време. Полицаите си поръчват да им донесат вино на работа от близката кръчма, съвсем нормално за всеки е да пийне бутилка вино или 2-3 "аператива" като мастика с обяда, а обикаляйки из града да разпитва хора, Мегре по няколко пъти на ден сяда в заведения, за по халба бира - сам, с колеги или с някой, с когото трябва да говори. Не знам това дали е защото става дума за Франция, защото действието се развива през 50-те, или и двете ;)

[Ivonne Rovira]

First published in English in 1955 with the better title of Inspector Maigret and the Burglar’s Wife, Maigret and the Tall Woman was a book I simply couldn’t put down, as cliché as that sounds. A former prostitute who had had a run-in with Maigret some 17 years earlier has since married a safecracker, Alfred “Sad Freddie” Jussiaume. Madame Jussiaume pops into Maigret’s office to advise him that her husband had fled the scene of his impending crime on Tuesday night when he found a bloodied woman’s body.

Meticulous as always — and as daring as always — Maigret goes step by step, deploying his loyal police officers, tirelessly questioning witnesses and suspects alike, until he brings the culprits to justice. An incredibly fine read that I highly recommend.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Penguin Classics in exchange for an honest review. And thank you, Penguin Classics, for reissuing the entire Maigret series a book at a time.

[Димитър Тодоров · Rating 3 out of 5]

Мегре №38. История, в която срещаме най-големия завалия сред касоразбивачите. Тъжния Алфред. За чийто лош късмет се е оказало, че до набелязаната претъпкана със злато и книжни пари каса в частния зъболекарски кабинет на тиха улица в Ньой лежи труп на жена на средна възраст. Всъщност не ние срещаме Алфред, а жена му със зелена шапка - комисаря Мегре. И разследването и играта на нерви започва! Даже и без надежден свидетел, че в Ньой труп изобщо е имало. Може да се е изнесъл в отпуск като всички нормални парижани през знойния август. Когато само студената бира предлага спасение. И влаковете за Хавър, Руан и Амстердам. Идеалното четиво за зноен августовски ден край Панчаревското езеро.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting crime fiction novel. A tall woman tells Maigret that her partner, a burglar, well known to the police, had seen a dead body whilst he was trying to open a safe on the ground floor of a dentist’s place of residence and business.
Maigret investigates the relationship between the dentist, his mother and wife.

This book was first published in 1951.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable. It was gratifying to arrive at the last page and see:
Shadow Rock Farm
Lakeville, Connecticut
I lived in the small town of Lakeville for a number of years. So marvelous that for a time the great Simenon lived and wrote there...

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars! Surprisingly good but I have no time to write a review as I have to go out in the smoke to the library to return it as someone else wants it. Read this one first chance you get.

[Gaetano Laureanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno dei migliori romanzi della serie, coinvolgente ed incalzante nonostante la trama sia semplicissima.

Adoro quando Maigret si accanisce alla ricerca del colpevole che ha già scoperto solo con la sua intuizione. Fino ad averne la conferma, come stavolta, dopo una vera e propria guerra nervosa.

Belle, come al solito, le ambientazioni e le atmosfere.

[Michael Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Oh Georges Simenon. Your tight, witty prose is so cool I feel more socially desirable just reading one of your books. It's a pity this is an ebook, otherwise my fellow commuters might've caught a glimpse of the cover and secretly hoped I'd be their friend.



Maigret and the Tall Woman is the 38th of the 76 novels Simenon wrote about his titular inspector, and as about a typical example of the series as you could hope for. That's not a criticism; with their low page counts and procedural nature, the Maigret novels have the feel of a quality television crime drama.

In each one we're presented with an intriguing or baffling situation, Maigret huffs around, has a few beers, puffs himself up for a fight – and we've quickly rattled through to the resolution. No padding, no fluff, just an absolute confidence in the author and the crime genre's literary ability.

My God Maigret, you're just so cool.

[Barbarroja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puro y clásico Maigret. Una delicia.

[Keith Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A career safe-breaker, well known to the police, has broken into a house, bent on burglary, but is disturbed by the discovery of the murdered body of a woman. He flees, afraid that he will be accused of her death, but his lover reports the incident to Maigret, as she fears her partner will be blamed. But there is no report of a death or indeed a burglary from the house in question, and when Maigret visits the house there is no body either; only an elderly woman, her dentist son and a report that the son’s estranged wife had left him a few days before.
Without a body, any evidence of murder and two uncommunicative suspects, Maigret has to solve what has happened and obtain evidence of guilt.
In truth, this is a slight piece, and although every Simenon novel has its virtues, this is not one of his best. Although there are many incidental pleasures along the way, the author appears to lose interest towards the end. Maigret solves his case in a rather perfunctory fashion.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start this review, I have to say that I, personally, enjoy reading detectives at summer. The thing is, I feel that vacation read requires to be both thrilling and not emotionally heavy. And “Maigret And The Tall Woman” turned out to be just the book of that kind – so I’m very thankful to Penguin Books for sending it to me.

Actually, I was excited to read it as I’ve already been introduced to a few of Maigret detectives and all of them appeared to be full of plot twists and aperitif. And clearly, “Maigret And The Tall Woman” is no exception.

Putting the plot summary short: Maigret is visited by a tall woman he had arrested decades ago. She reports that her husband – a professional safecracker – is hiding, frightened, after coming across a murdered body of middle-aged woman during another break-in. She gives Maigret the address and insists on investigation. Maigret calls to Brasserie Dauphine and asks for two Pernods to be delivered to his office. – Yes I have to add that upon finishing this detective you’ll be well aware of, what feels like, all the brasseries offering alcohol drinks in 1950s Paris.- Then he sets off to the house ,where , presumably, a murder has been comitted. However, to Maigret’s surprise, he finds that no murder has been reported although something about the atmosphere in the house gets him suspicious so in order to think carefully about what the case may be he decides to visit a brasserie across the street and drink some wine.

I suggest you to pick up this detective of Georges Simenon’s if you’re in for a fast-paced read filled with intrigues. It’s like, the more you read, the more does the fogg of suspense thicken.

Please, share your thoughts about your favorite Maigret detectives in comments!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read almost half of the 75 Maigret detective novels by Georges Simenon, and I am now convinced that the author can do no wrong. In Maigret and the Burglar's Wife, Maigret is told by the wife of a well-known safe cracker that, on a job, he found a dead body near the safe and ran off without opening the safe or even picking up his tools. By process of elimination, he finds the premises -- but no body, no safe cracking tools, and lots of unanswered questions.

Throughout, Maigret suspects the residence of the house, a middle-aged dentist and his widowed mother, of the murder of the dentist's wife. But he has to make it stick. And the dentist is not making it easy, so Maigret has to sweat it out of him by giving him and his mother the third degree, French style.

[Antonella Imperiali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmosfera tesa fin dall’inizio.
Adoro quando Maigret non molla l’osso anche se il “cane” (in questo caso i “cani”) con cui ha a che fare parrebbero più grossi e resistenti di lui.
La trama è assai semplice, ma non per questo meno accattivante ed incalzante; il tutto si gioca e si risolve grazie ad una bella guerra di nervi.
Ma l’intuizione di Maigret, avvalorata alla fine dai fatti, porterà alla soluzione del caso.
Uno tra i migliori della serie.



🌍 LdM - Sfida 2024: Francia 🇫🇷
✍️ GS/Maigret

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman from the detective's past reappears and asks him to help find her missing husband. Available at BBC Radio 7.

[NebulousGloom (FK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Maigret book. Definitely enjoyable, although dear god does he drink a lot while working. Anyway, I'll definitely read more.