Stan the Killer

by Georges Simenon

‘Maigret moved slowly, edging his bulky frame through the throng in Rue Saint-Antoine, which burst into life every morning, the sunshine streaming down from a clear sky on to the little barrows piled high with fruit and vegetables’

In these three tales of deception, set in and around Paris, Simenon's celebrated detective uncovers chilling truths about the depths of the human instinct for self-preservation.

Genres: Crime

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

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

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25⭐

A 1938 Maigret novella by Georges Simenon, featuring a tense stakeout and a mysterious informant. In Stan the Killer, Simenon plunges us into a gritty Parisian underworld where Inspector Maigret and his team are surveilling a hotel in Rue de Birague. Their target, a gang of Polish criminals known for attacking isolated farms in northern France. The gang’s leader is the elusive and brutal Stan, nicknamed “the Killer.” The story takes a sharp turn when a strange Polish man, Michel Ozep, offers to help Maigret capture Stan, claiming insider knowledge of the gang’s operations.

[Jack Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. I enjoyed it so much. Just full of uncertainty; Superintendent Maigret is worried about the direction his investigation is taking. Will it result in greater difficulties and more murders? The usuals, Maigret, Janvier and Lucas, among others, believe they have cornered a dangerous Polish gang of thieves at a low-level hotel in Paris. They are watching it carefully. For the last several years, Stan the Killer and his people, the Beard, One-Eye, the Chemist, Spinach, Olga, and the Fat Boy, have been raiding rural farms not far from the city, stealing all the valuables, and knifing to death any witnesses including young children. The public is aghast and terrified. During the stakeout, a man appears and sits down at Maigret's table in a café near the hotel. Michel Ozep claims he can lead the police to Stan and aid in the capture. Believable? How does he even know of the undercover operation? Ozep keeps appearing and becomes one major pain in the rear-end for the Superintendent. But the problem for Maigret is that he is uncertain what Stan looks like, and he suspects each of the gang members of being Stan, and Ozep too! One great short story. (Mar2022/De2025)

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another cracking short story set in Paris and featuring Maigret with some of his extended team of detectives. The police have little evidence following a series of brutal and murderous attacks in the French countryside. Reported to be a Polish gang led by Stan the Killer that robs isolated farmhouses and leaves no witnesses to their crimes.

The story begins with a ‘stake-out’ of a hotel frequented by poor immigrants including a number of Poles.

With comic overtones and growing frustration on Maigret’s part, there seems to be little chance of a break through. Their clandestine operation is further compromised by speculation in the press and a strange Polish man who offers himself on a suicide mission to expose the thieves.

I love the tension that grows with each passing page reflected in Maigret’s mood and diminished confidence in himself and with elements of the operation. Stan the Killer has led his gang without mercy. Thought that rather than face arrest very likely to kill indiscriminately, including police officers and innocent Parisians if feels cornered.

In the end he decides to use Ozep to confront the gang and force their hand. He is entrusted to tell them that the police are going to raid their rooms. Maigret is forced to wait with a foreboding that something bad is going down, for once events totally outside his control.

A brilliant investigation that balances the many less dangerous cases he undertakes.
These different facets across his short stories and seventy-five novels are what makes Simenon’s Maigret such a readable protagonist and a favourite of mine.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD

Three short stories. Stan the Killer is about a gang robbing and murdering people in remote farmhouses. Maigret and his men stake out a hotel where they suspect the gang is based. A Polish gentleman called Ozep offers to help Maigret and plagues him offering assistance.

In the end we find that Stan is a ruthless woman and was Ozep’s wife. She killed their child and he wants revenge which he achieves and then hangs himself.

The Inn of the Drowned has Maigret in the rain investigating the disappearance of a couple and a body in the boot of their car recovered from the river. An accident shoved the car into the river and it is assumed the couple were swept away. After interviewing the lorry driver that knocked the car into the river Maigret suspects him of lying. It turns out the man driving the car bribed the truck driver and murdered the woman in the boot for her money. The woman with him ran away when she realized he was a scoundrel.

Madame Maigret’s Suitor is about a mysterious elderly man who Madame Maigret sees every day in the square below their apartment. Then the man is murdered and turns out to be a spy who was working with a maid of a diplomatic spy. Amusingly Madame Maigret works out the solution surprising Maigret.

Three stories of deception with Maigret solving the cases in his mysterious intuitive way.

[FP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un día estaba comprando libros usados y el vendedor de uno de los quioscos notó que ya había comprado en otra parte algunas novelas de Agatha Christie, de modo que se las ingenió para promocionarme y venderme este libro. También intentó venderme uno de Perry Mason, pero ahí tracé una línea; si uno le dice que sí a todo, esos tipos te terminan vendiendo todo lo que te pueden encajar encima. Además, Perry Mason es un abogado, no un detective. Cosas completamente distintas.
Esta historia no tiene nada que ver con mi opinión del libro, sólo es una anécdota.

El libro que compré en verdad es un compilado de cuatro cuentos sobre el detective Maigret. No son malas historias, aunque no estoy seguro de que hayan sido la aproximación ideal para alguien que busca leerlo por primera vez. Las tramas de misterio son buenas, aunque el autor claramente le da más importancia y peso al desarrollo del personaje que al misterio mismo. Además, hay un cierto elemento de cinismo incorporado (no muy fuerte), que quizás tiene que ver conque en los tres cuentos siguientes el personaje está acogiéndose a retiro.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maigret would never stan the killer. The first two stories fairly efficiently play the hits, with Maigret going after yet another gang of Eastern European farmhouse annihilatorsand and an impetuous young man. I feel like whoever committed the carteron murders was a big fan of Simenon.The final story is more original, going in a more cloak and dagger direction. Most of Maigret's interactions with his wife come off as sinister in a perhaps unintentional way.

[César Zeledón · Rating 3 out of 5]

En el libro se reúnen cuatro cuentos detectivescos en los que el protagonista (el célebre pero ya retirado inspector Maigret) se encarga de resolver 4 crímenes distintos a través de su astucia e inteligencia. Los cuentos guardan cierta relación temporal pues se desarrollan en el período de retiro del comisario francés, lo que no es óbice para que este se vea involucrado de forma activa en cada uno de los casos. No he leído casi nada de literatura policial o detectivesca así que no podría sopesar estos cuentos en su justa medida. Sin embargo, es un buen libro, entretenido, y una buena puerta de entrada al género. De Simenon me queda pendiente leer sus novelas (las de Maigret y otras más), algo que seguramente haré en el futuro.

[D'face · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Maigret short story where they are staking out a Polish gang that have committed horrendous murders and robberies of remote farmhouses. He believes he has located where the gang are holed up in Paris, but where is their leader Stan? A strange little Pole approaches Maigret saying he wants to kill himself in unearthing the gang, Maigret distrusts and shrugs him off, but he persists. Maigret agrees that the little man can enter the building and warn the woman there that Maigret is about to pounce, with dramatic consequences.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predecible pero entretenido.

[Jacqui Person · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 / 5

[Ugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Penguin archive edition (9780241752166), which doesn't seem to be on here. It's three Simenon short stories, all of which have great setups and disappointing resolutions.

[Rudy Yamada · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little novella.

[AMIR · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Georges Simenon book and I really enjoyed it...got to explore more

[Blitzsche · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kurzgeschichte. Viele Teile davon habe ich sonstwo bei Simenon schon gelesen. Eine Räuberbande (wilde Rumänen?). Beziehungsdelikte, die Frau ist die Böse am Ende. Lange Beschattung (auch das ein wiederkehrendes Motiv).