In the Yellow Dog, a particularly well-plotted crime novel, Maigret
travels to the small coastal town of Concarneau where a local wine
merchant has been murdered under mysterious circumstances. According to a
witness the man was strolling home on a windy night and paused to walk
up steps leading to the narrow sheltered porch of a long empty house.
Moments later the man fell backwards, dead from the shots.
Once there Maigret meets the four men and one waitress who seem to know
much more than they're willing to share with him. He also sees a large
yellow dog that keeps appearing at the crime scenes to come. Maigret
feels a kinship with the animal which is more than he can say for
anybody he meets in the town.
Where did the dog come from? Why does he keep showing up at such odd
moments? Does he belong to the person who by book's end kills more
people?
This is a serial killer novel. Simenon even casts the local newspaper as
one of the villains. The editor has a history of exploiting bad news to
the point of making each local tragedy worse. And the killings are no
exception. Simenon suggests that it is sop for Frenchmen to a) have
mistresses and b) go about armed. Both are factors in the
investigation.
Most of the elements of classic Maigret are here. The weather is as
vivid as the characters; Simenon buttresses his sociological look at
French life with bleak humor; and his pity for decent people life has
treated badly borders on the religious along with his contempt for
pomposity and self-importance and cruelty.
There is always a claustrophobic feel to the Maigrets; this allows the
reader to experience what the Inspector himself does. As a forlorn
chronicler of humankind Simenon is still without peer.
Somewhat Forgotten Books That Made Me a Crime Fiction Reader. (Tomorrow it would be different titles) Patti Abbott
Sergio Angelini, THE CRIME ON THE COTE DE NEIGES, David Montrose
Mark Baker, FREE FALL, Robert Crais
Yvetter Banek, REED'S PROMISE, John Clarkson
Les Blatt, A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED, Agatha Christie
Brian Busby, Young Canada Boys with the S.O.S. on the Frontier, Harold C. Lowry
Bill Crider, THE BOB DYLAN SCRAPBOOK, 1956-66
Martin Edwards, BATS IN THE BELFRY, E.C.R. Lorac
Curt Evans, A CHESS PROBLEM: A PLAYER ON THE OTHER SIDE, Ellery Queen
Ed Gorman, THE PAT HOBBY STORIES, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Charles Gramlich, WEB OF GUNSMOKE, Will Hickok
Rick Horton, MARIETTA, F. Marion Crawford
Jerry House, THE FROSTED DEATH, Paul Ernst
Nick Jones, RIGHT AS RAIN, George Pelecanos
George Kelley, WOMEN CRIME WRITERS, 1950s, ed. Sarah Weinman
Rob Kitchin, WINTER WAR, William Trotter
B.V. Lawson, MORE GOOD OLD STUFF, John D. MacDonald
Evan Lewis, MURDER WEARS A HALO, John Evans/Howard Browne
Steve Lewis/Barry Gardner, BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER, Margaret Maron
Todd Mason, el, 2003; edited by Earl Kemp
Matt Paust,THE BLACK CLOUD, Fred Hoyle
James Reasoner, NIGHT CALLS THE GREEN FALCON, Robert McCammon
Richard Robinson, THE COMPLETE PARATIME. H. Beam Piper
Gerard Saylor, British Paratrooper Versus Fallschirmjager" by David Grentree
Kevin Tipple, SEVEN BY SEVEN, ed. Tony Burton
TomCat, Robert Arthur
Prashant Trikannad, FIRST OFFENSE, Evan Hunter
TracyK, THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY, A.A. Milne
Westlake Review, DANCING WITH AZTECS, Donald Westlake
Zybahn, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, Alvin Schwartz
13 comments:
Mine's up now, Patti: THE FROSTED DEATH by "Kenneth Robeson" (Paul Ernst).
Nice list, Patti! I've never been able to get into Elizabeth George, but I have read all of the others. My Freeling experience: I joined the Mystery Guild and one of the books I got was his AUPRES DE MA BLONDE (A LONG SILENCE), which was the first Van der Valk book I read. This - to say the least - was a huge mistake, as anyone who has read the series will understand. (WARNING - MAJOR SPOILER ALERT - He kills off his detective in this, the last in the series, though he did write one last book years later. END WARNING) I did search out and read the rest of the series, though in no particular order. I read a dozen of his books (most in the series) between March and May of 1973. I never warmed up to his later series.
Jeff M.
I have the Maigret under the title A FACE FOR A CLUE. Don't ask me how Penguin came up with these, as you would think THE YELLOW DOG was pretty obvious. The recent reprint has the latter title.
A PLACE OF EXECUTION is one of my favorite mysteries ever.
I always like it when I have a chance to take part.
Some great books there, Patti! I've just about all of them.
Like you and Jeff I've read plenty of these books. We have a lot of similar tastes in mysteries.
I'm up!
Thanks, as always, Patti.
eI (2003 Annual/December 2003), edited by Earl Kemp
I'm reminded that Le chien jaune was assigned in grade ten French class. Could it be that high school was better than memory has it?
Impressive, Brian.
Anyone know what happened to R.T.? He started a neat new blog a week or so ago called The Simple Act of Murder, and as of yesterday it had been been removed, with no forwarding address.
RT tends to kill blogs quickly. I'm not certain why.
He'll be back I am sure.
Good to know. Was starting to worry he might have been posting from Paris.
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