Maigret: Inspector Maigret

by Georges Simenon, Ros Schwartz (Translator)

A new translation of this gripping novel which sees the inspector brought out of his peaceful retirement, book nineteen in the new Penguin Maigret series.

Maigret shrugged his shoulders, buried his hands in his pockets and went off without answering. He had just spent one of the most wretched days in his life. For hours, in his corner he had felt old and feeble, without idea or incentive. But now a tiny flame flickered. 'You bet we'll see' he growled.

Maigret's peaceful retirement in the countryside is disrupted when a relative unwittingly embroils himself in a crime he did not commit and the inspector returns to Police Headquarters in Paris once again.
Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret Returns.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

Genres: Mystery, France

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2015

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

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maigret works a side of Paris the tourists don't see; it's dark Paris, seedy Paris, the Paris of solicited liaisons and Underworld figures and greed and lust and wickedness. Maigret is at home here. He is retired in this volume of Inspector Maigret, but his nephew, now working on the force, is accused of a murder, and Maigret is asked by his sister-in-law to intervene. Maigret is quickly able to sort things out and send the bad guys where they belong and return his out-of-his-depth nephew back home. It's the nuance in this book that is remarkable. Simenon tells a complete story in about a hundred pages, but at the edge of every scene are feelings and stories that are barely viewed, and yet add color and resonance to the story.

[Tony Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maigret is jolted out of retirement by his nephew, who has got involved with a murder in a Parisian club. Phillipe, who has joined the police to follow his Uncle's footsteps is a rookie Inspector, and rather naive and frankly soft. He is accused of killing a man whilst being involved in a stakeout, somewhat over reaching his authority. Maigret has to travel to Paris to see what he can do. He ends up calling in favours, hanging around his old offices, and feeling very uncomfortable in door stepping his old bosses. He spends huge amounts of the story sitting around in the club observing the interactions of a gang who are involved in drug supply, using the club as a front. He catches the real murderer through getting him to confess being overhead on the telephone by his former partner. A good story, although much of the interest is how Maigret behaves wildly out of his comfort zone. We are not given any detail as to how long he has been retired, or how retirement is suiting him. Most interesting was his former bosses description of "Maigret's method" - to get into the mind of the suspects, and their background and motivations. This book then led to a famine of Maigret novels for about six years. Readable, well paced - thankfully I don't have to wait six years for the next.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine example of Inspector Maigret's intuitive investigative method at work. This is a somewhat later work, published in 1954, and Maigret is in happy retirement outside of Paris. However, he is obliged to return to his "beat" in Paris to assist his nephew Philippe, who out of sheer carelessness and panic has gotten himself implicated in a murder. Maigret's unofficial presence at police headquarters is resented by most of his former colleagues, but he will have none of their disdain as he pursues his own idiosyncratic style. The man Philippe is accused of murdering is the proprietor of a bar, and it is quickly revealed that the bar and several of its patrons are the center of a drug-dealing operation. The identity of the individual truly responsible for orchestrating this first and several other murders is never in doubt in Maigret's mind; in fact, the man is named early on in the book. The challenge is to corner the fellow in the absence of a great deal of evidence while also trying to contend with the expert coordination of the lies of the other members of the drug ring.

One of the other Paris inspectors describes Maigret's method succinctly: "Usually, you get involved in people's lives; you try to understand their thinking and you take as much interest in things that happened to them twenty years earlier as you do in concrete clues. Here, we're faced with a bunch about whom we know pretty much everything. They don't even try to put us off the scent."

Maigret's final confrontation with the head of the gang is absolutely riveting. His aim is to encourage the fellow to confess in a private meeting with him, which, unknown to the criminal, is being listened to by Maigret's confederates on an open telephone line. Maigret twists and turns and half bluffs his way through this procedural, but through luck, skill, and sheer bravado he gets his man. This was the perfect diversion for me on a day when I was home ill from work!

[Julian King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maigret helps out by keeping his eyes and ears open, and by wise use of his long experience of the Parisian underworld. He spends most of the novel at a table in the corner of a cafe. Every so often he makes a judiciously placed telephone call. He befriends a helpful whore. After a little light torture, all is well.

This was my first Maigret, and one is clearly in the hands of a master - one who's testing playing games: can he hold an audience while almost literally nothing happens? Well, yes - just. Which I suppose is impressive, but not as impressive as a really good novel would have been.

I'll definitely have another go, but I'm sorry I started here.

[Steve Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Maigret so far.