Status Updates From Maigret's Doubts (Maigret #52)

'[Maigret] felt, finally that he was dealing with people of flesh and blood, men and women with passions and interests.'

Maigret: It’s a little like carrying out an investigation in reverse. Usually we have a crime at the beginning, and it’s only once it’s been committed that we try and find the motives for it. This time we have the motives but as of yet no crime.

I am starting to really enjoy this, gone from one of my least favourite Maigret novels to one of the best. Simenon pushes the limits for how many dysfunctional and toxic relationship dynamics you can depict in a novel that's less than 150 pages long. (it's about a guy who thinks his wife is conspiring to murder him... and everyone involved turns out to be involved in an incredibly convoluted love dodecahedron)

I am giving this a re-read. I remember this as one of the less interesting Maigret novels but I am really enjoying it this time. Similar atmosphere as Henry Miller's "Quiet Days in Clichy" in that it depicts the darker and more dysfunctional aspects of mid-century Paris except here it focuses on people who still have to keep up appearances of normality and respectability.