This is not the best Maigret I have read but it has a strangely soothing tone. So little happens that it hardly constitites a crime novel at all. And what does happen is told rather than shown. So the violence quotient is low.
A man is murdered in his comfortable home. The last one to see him was his son-in-law over a game of chess. His wife and daughter-in-law were at the theater. He has to have let the murderer in.
Well, it is kind of irksome when the murderer turns up late in the book, never mentioned to then. And we only hear about his crime. So I would rate this as one of the least satisfying Maigrets. Although the writing is good and his thought process believable. So even a lesser Maigret is worth your time.
6 comments:
Thanks, Patti - a great reminder that I haven't read any of the Maigret novels just lately They're worth a re-read...
Just checked. All previous editions were translated as Maigret and the Black Sheep. It still doesn't make me remember it better, but it was one of the later books, and I tend to remember the earlier ones from the 1930s better.
Patti, there have been mixed reviews of these new translations of the Maigret series. One criticism is the changing of the titles. Jeff is right that previous editions were translated asf Maigret and the Black Sheep instead of Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse. But, you're right: reading a Maigret is like eating comfort food.
Well that title would tip the hand, making it even less satisfying, Jeff and George.
Simenon is one I go back to fairly often.
I like the Maigret series although his standalones are much better books. At least they are all short which is a rarity in these days. I've been reading some Pascar Garnier. A French writer who died about 10 years ago. His novels, all short, remind me a lot of Simenon.
From the description of his novels, Pascal Garnier sounds more like Jean-Patrick Manchette. I'll have to try one.
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