Georges Simenon Libros

nº 12, edicion 1983, traduccion de Mª Jose Torrente y Gonzalo Torrente Malvido, 364 paginas, tapa dura

Louis Cuchas es el penúltimo de los seis hijos de Gabrielle, una mujer que trata de compaginar a sus sucesivos amantes con su puesto ambulante de fruta y verdura. Crecidos en el ambiente promiscuo y problemático del pisito en que viven hacinados, los seis hermanos intentan encontrar su lugar en el mundo. Louis, observador, hipersensible e inocente —tanto que en el colegio le llaman «el angelito»—, va dejando atrás la infancia mientras asiste maravillado a la bulliciosa vida que se desarrolla en el populoso mercado de abastos donde comienza a trabajar y en las calles aledañas; todo le sonidos, colores, imágenes, sensaciones y, en particular, las personas. Cierto día descubre su afición a la pintura, y partir de ese momento vivirá sólo para esa pasión. Tal vez entonces su vida se precipite, tal vez Louis se convierta en un pintor célebre y llegue a vender muy caras sus telas, pero siempre verá las cosas como ese niño introvertido al que llamaban «el angelito».

Con Los hermanos Rico, escrita y publicada originalmente en 1952, durante su estancia en Connecticut, Georges Simenon aborda un tema no muy habitual en sus novelas. Efectivamente, además de la perspicacia psicológica que suele caracterizar sus argumentos, Simenon retrata en esta ocasión, con la estremecedora frialdad tan propia de él, el duro mundo de la Mafia norteamericana y sus implacables métodos de actuación. Eddie Rico, un comerciante frutero de origen siciliano y ahora establecido en Florida, es considerado por todos un buen esposo, un padre de familia ejemplar y un respetable hombre de negocios. Pero la bondad de este mundo de apariencias burguesas nunca es lo que parece ser. . . Junto con sus dos hermanos menores -Gino y Tony-, Eddie forma parte de un grupo mafioso encargado de «proteger» una amplia red de negocios relacionados con el juego. Esta doble vida -de la que sólo tiene conocimiento la madre de los tres hermanos- se verá amenazada cuando Tony, que acaba de casarse, empiece a comportarse de manera extraña. Será entonces cuando Eddie tenga que tomar su más arriesgada decisión. Pero, como siempre en estos casos, Simenon se guarda alguna carta en la manga, reservándonos un final tan sorprendente como inesperado.

Algunos levantarían la ceja al escuchar sobre la vida de Maurice Dudon. Este hombre no tenía (ni quería) conocidos y, tras cumplir con sus tareas diarias como contable, vivía completamente solo; nadie había entrado jamás en su apartamento, que habitaba desde hacía muchos años. Dudon recibía un buen salario, lo que llevaba a su jefe, Félicien Mallard, a preguntarse por qué su empleado vivía en un lugar así. La respuesta a esa pregunta es la indiferencia: Dudon se mostraba indiferente a todo, y parece que esto también se aplicaba a su propia vida.

Um livro pungente, do criador do comissário Maigret, escrito três anos após a morte da sua mãe. Simenon confessa a incompreensão de uma mãe e de um filho, que acabaram por nunca conseguir amar-se. Já num livro anterior, “Pedigree”, o escritor fizera o retrato de uma mãe dominadora em “Carta para Minha Mãe” relata alguns episódios que o marcaram, como quando a mãe, ao falar da morte do irmão mais novo de Simenon, diz: “Que pena que tenha sido ele a morrer!” ou quando ela lhe devolve todo o dinheiro que ele lhe foi dando durante cinquenta anos para a ajudar. «Um livro de compaixão.» António Cabrita, Expresso, Cartaz

Cuando la joven y embarazada Germaine desaparece, pronto se encuentran los sospechosos: una familia flamenca es acusada. ¿Por qué? ¿Porque los comerciantes flamencos en Givet son extranjeros y más adinerados que el resto de la comunidad? ¿O porque el hijo de la familia tuvo un romance con la joven, pero ahora tiene una mejor opción? Maigret debe restaurar el honor de la familia. El 14º caso de Maigret se desarrolla en Givet, una pequeña ciudad en las Ardenas, en la frontera franco-belga.

Era hermosa, y le gustaban las joyas, La diversion, el lujo. Sin embargo, una madrugada la descubren estrangulada cerca de una esclusa de un canal.

Un tremendo escándalo hizo que el actor François Combe se exiliara en Nueva York, abandonando así su carrera en Francia para aterrizar en el más absoluto anonimato. Al cabo del tiempo, Combe permanece en la ciudad de la costa este norteamericana, olvidado por todos. La necesidad de escapar de tan omnipresente soledad le conduce a entrar en un bar, dónde conoce a una joven llamada Kay. Ella está ahí mientras decide a dónde va, pues se ha quedado en la calle después de haber sido expulsada de su apartamento. Este encuentro da lugar a la primera habitación. En un hotel. Ahí intentan desesperadamente olvidar cada uno sus penas y donde acaba naciendo entre ellos una gran pasión. Muy pronto, François empieza a padecer unos celos enfermizos por el pasado de Kay. Como para mejor 'apropiarse' de ella, la lleva finalmente a su propia vivienda, la segunda habitación de la novela. Allí, la pareja se esfuerza por conocerse mejor y por trabar mayor intimidad, pero su amor incandescente y exasperado va fermentando en la violencia. Así deciden trasladarse a la tercera habitación, la que Kay habia tenido que abandonar: François descubrira al fin -demasiado tarde?- que él ha estado juzgando mal a su amada

Mit seiner Kochkunst ist es dem kleinen Gastwirt aus der Provinz gelungen, ein florierendes Bistro im alten Pariser Hallen-Viertel aufzubauen. Doch dann bricht er plötzlich mitten im hektischen Essenstrubel tot zusammen. Was soll aus seinem Lebenswerk werden? Seine Witwe und die drei Söhne verfolgen ganz unterschiedliche Pläne: Antoine will in die Fußstapfen des Vaters treten und das Bistro weiterführen, doch Ferdinand und Bernard brauchen dringend Geld. Doch davon wie auch von einem Testament fehlt jede Spur. Dann taucht ein Schlüssel zu einem Bankschließfach auf, dessen Inhalt alle überrascht.

Collects over one hundred recipes from the fictional, but enviable notebooks of the wife of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret, providing full instructions, methods, accompaniments, and alternatives

Explore the insights of authors as they delve into their writing techniques, the inspiration behind their characters' names, and the critical reception their novels have received. This collection offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, revealing how personal experiences and literary influences shape their work.

This volume is the first in the Tout Maigret series, gathering the investigations of one of the key characters in detective literature. Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories allow readers to rediscover the most famous hero of 20th-century literature, a hero who is distinct, human, and universal.

This new selection of stories featuring Inspector Maigret - three of which are published in English for the first time - takes the detective from a mysterious death in a Cannes hotel to a love triangle in the Loire countryside and a bitter rivalry within a Parisian family. Written during the Second World War, just a few years after Simenon had published what was intended to be his last novel featuring Inspector Maigret, these tales of human frailty and deceit distil the atmosphere, themes and psychological intensity that make Simenon's famous detective series so compelling. Translated by Ros Schwartz 'Not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor' Boyd Tonkin, Times

The story presents the famous Inspector Maigret in a new role as a husband, with his wife assisting him in unraveling a complex murder case. Her involvement is so effective that he teasingly refers to her as "Mme la commissaire Maigret." This narrative showcases the dynamics of their relationship while maintaining the hallmark mastery of the renowned crime author. It explores themes of partnership, trust, and the intersection of personal and professional lives, all set against the backdrop of a gripping mystery.

Paris has taken its toll and Maigret is sent to Vichy for the cure, but the Inspector finds it difficult to give his curiosity a rest. He compiles a mental dossier on his fellow guests, including a curious woman he and Madam Maigret note in particular -- the lady in lilac. When a headline in the local paper announces the woman's murder, Maigret -- with some relief -- interrupts his routine to aid the investigation. The arrival of the dead woman's sister provokes more questions than answers but Madame Maigret, as always, puts everything in the proper perspective.

In the final novel featuring Inspector Maigret, the famous detective reaches a pivotal moment in his career Maigret is a few years short of his retirement and has just refused promotion to the post of Head of the Police Judiciare, preferring the human contact he enjoys as Head of the Criminal Division. His wish is granted when Madam Nathalie Sabin-Levesque, an elegant but highly nervous lwoman, insists that he personally investigates the disappearance of her husband Gėrard, a highly successful and wealthy Parisian lawyer. In Maigret and Monsieur Charles, the conclusive installment of the the Inspector Maigret mystery series, our famous detective finds himself contemplating his past and future as he delves into the Paris underworld one last time.

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian Inspector Maigret finds himself caught in the middle of a husband and wife duo’s case of “he said/she said”—with murderous consequences An unusually quiet day for Inspector Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman Xavier Manton. Maigret is taken aback by Manton’s revelation that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him. And when he receives a visit from Madame Manton expressing her own grave concerns later that day, he finds himself deeply conflicted, unsure of whom to trust. Maigret heeds the advice of his seniors and begins investigating the couple—and with every turn, new complications arise. When the case comes to a boil and a body is discovered, everyone, including Maigret, is shocked. Maigret’s Doubts is an engrossing mystery of marriage and deceit that forces the reader to question whether our brilliant inspector may be fallible after all.

When Maigret receives a visit from an old schoolmate whose mistress has been shot to death, he feels compelled to look into the case. Yet his friend is one of the suspects-along with the dead woman's four other lovers, each unknown to the others. The basis for a public television Mystery! presentation. Translated by Eileen Ellenbogen. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Seventeen stories feature Simenon's dauntless detective as he works on some baffling cases both from his base--Paris police headquarters on the Quai des Ortevres--and throughout the provinces.

"When his sexy young wife fails to home one night, Jonas Milk tells his inquisitive neighbours she is visiting a friend. But his innocent attempt to protect Gina's reputation provokes hostility and suspicion among the residents of the Vieux-Marche - who know very well she has been having flagrant affairs throughout her marriage to the quiet little bookseller. Soon Jonas's small lie leads him into a nightmare of police inquiries and painful discoveries . . ."--Publisher.

Nobody mentioned the victims, or the terror that had gripped the town. For the last twenty days it had rained and between the usual quiet conversations and card games, only the trickle of water and the air of cold fear could be detected. A serial killer stalks La Rochelle's cobbled streets - and by the most unfortunate of occurrences, Kachoudas, a poor timid tailor and a newcomer to the town, knows exactly who it is... One of Georges Simenon's darkest novels, The Hatter's Ghosts is a riveting portrait of murder and subterfuge, at once a cat and mouse thriller and an acute physiological study of the criminal imagination.

Dan said he would go back out into the snowstorm to look for Ray. Instead he has spent the last few hours on a red bench in the barn, smoking cigarette after cigarette. As he replays his memories of recent months, of the dinner party that evening in Connecticut and the journey home with their wives, his heroic search for his friend turns into a trial of their friendship - one that could leave Ray to perish in the snow.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré In this Georges Simenon classic, a Dutch clerk flees to Paris with his crooked boss’s money and meets the woman behind the man “A certain furtive, almost shameful emotion . . . disturbed him whenever he saw a train go by, a night train especially, its blinds drawn down on the mystery of its passengers.” Kees Popinga is a respectable Dutch citizen and family man—until the day he discovers his boss has bankrupted the shipping firm he works for, and something snaps. Kees used to watch the trains go by on their way to exciting destinations. Now, on some dark impulse, he boards one at random, and begins a new life of recklessness and violence. The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By is a chilling portrayal of a man who breaks from society and goes on the run asks who we are, and what we are capable of.

Here in notebooks that were never intended for publication, Simenon reflects on his life in some of the most candid revelations ever written. He reflects on his past - his childhood in Liege, the wild parties in Paris and travels around the world - and also examines his motivations and his attitude to work.

English, French (translation)

The Penguin Crime and Espionage series offers a curated collection of thrilling narratives that delve into the world of crime and espionage. Each installment features gripping plots, complex characters, and intricate twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats. This series aims to showcase both classic and contemporary works, appealing to fans of suspense and intrigue. With a focus on storytelling that captures the essence of mystery and danger, it promises to be a must-read for enthusiasts of the genre.

A bullet in the eye ends the life of the postmistress of a small French village. Because she pried into their secrets, everyone hated her. Everyone was glad she was dead. A man is accused - wrongfully. His life is at stake. In the end his main crime seems to be that he is from Paris, and villagers hang together against outsiders. When Maigret investigates he finds only hostility, shifty answers and lies.

Murder Most A Collection of Great Crime Stories

When an ominous note predicting the time and place of a death finds its way to Maigret's desk in Paris, his investigation brings him to Saint-Fiacre, the place of his birth. It isn't long before a darkness descends on Maigret and the town, as the prediction becomes a brutal reality and the Inspector discovers he is not welcome in the place he once called home. As much a thriller as a meditation on alienation, The Saint-Fiacre Affair displays Simenon's unique and searing perspective of the struggles we all are forced to endure.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A tense, unforgettable Inspector Maigret mystery from Georges Simenon “He recalled his travelling companion’s agitated sleep—was it really sleep?—his sighs, and his sobbing. Then the two dangling legs, the patent-leather shoes and hand-knitted socks . . . An insipid face. Glazed eyes. And Maigret was not surprised to see a grey beard eating into his cheeks.” A distressed passenger leaps off a night train and vanishes into the woods. Maigret, on his way to a well-earned break in the Dordogne, is soon plunged into the pursuit of a madman, hiding amongst the seemingly respectable citizens of Bergerac.

Nine short stories make up this delightful holiday-themed collection, each featuring Georges Simenon's famous detective, Jules Maigret. Christmas mysteries abound: an otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold; another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him. Many of these stories feature observant and resourceful children, frightened yet resolute, who bring out a paternal streak in the childless Maigret. The rapport between the inspector and these youthful heroes imparts a delightful freshness to this holiday collection- a cornucopia for fans of Maigret and mysteries.

Against all expectations Marcel Féron has made a “normal” life in a bucolic French suburb in the Ardennes. But on May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, this timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the “Fate” that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark- haired girl, whose accent is “neither Belgian nor German,” and who “seemed foreign to everything around her.” As the mystery of Anna’s identity is gradually revealed, Marcel leaps from the heights of an exhilarating freedom to the depths of a terrifying responsibility—one that will lead him to a blood-chilling choice. When it first appeared in English in 1964, British novelist and critic Brigid Brophy declared The Train to be “the novel his admirers had been expecting all along from Simenon.” Until The Train, she wrote, the dazzlingly prolific novelist had been “a master without a masterpiece.”

In the windswept seaside town of Concarneau, a local wine merchant is shot. In fact, someone is out to kill all the influential men and the entire town is soon sent into a state of panic. For Maigret, the answers lie with the pale, downtrodden waitress Emma, and a strange yellow dog lurking in the shadows...

Inspector Lognon - an embittered but dedicated detective - is shot. To everyone's amazement, it emerges that Lognon had spent the last ten nights in the room of a beautiful young woman - who has disappeared. In retreading Lognon's secretive last days, Maigret's investigations lead him into the murky world of art-collecting and forgery.

"It's not because you're foreigners. It's because you aren't foreign enough... or else that you are too foreign. Just as the Krull house sits on the edge of a rural French town, the family occupies a marginal place in the life of the community around them. Snubbed by the locals despite having lived there for decades, they rely on trade with passing sailors to earn a living. When their relative arrives unannounced from Germany, with his unsettling, nonchalant ways, the family becomes the target of increasing suspicion and the scapegoat for a terrible crime. Written on the eve of the Second World War, The Krull House is a taut, strangely prophetic novel about how distrust and hostility towards outsiders descends into hate-filled violence." -- Provided by publisher

Is Carl Andersen innocent of murder, or a very good liar? Detective Chief Inspector Maigret has been interrogating the enigmatic Danish aristocrat for seventeen hours. A diamond merchant was found dead, shot at point-blank range, in the garage of Andersen's mansion, yet he will not confess to the crime. To get to the truth, Maigret must delve into the secrets of Three Widows Crossroads, the isolated neighbourhood where he lives with his mysterious, reclusive sister Else - and where, it seems, everyone has something to hide.

A bus stops on the road to Montlu on, and there two strangers meet- Tati, a steely widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, and Jean, an odd, quiet man with nowhere to go. There is between them an affinity and Jean agrees to lodge with Tati, and help with the farm as he can. In the still and heat of the summer, they labour together and, inevitably, begin their affair. But nothing is at it seems, and as affections strain and stray, their relationship hurtles toward a disturbing doom . . . First published in 1942 at the same time as Albert Camus' The Outsider, this is Simenon's existentialist masterpiece - a powerful exploration of desire and death, of the barbarous edge that encircles the human soul.

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph A baffling case. A mysterious inheritance. It starts when a man's arm is fished out of Paris's Canal Saint-Martin. Then the rest of the body is retrieved - apart from the head. Inspector Maigret is determined to unearth the truth behind this disturbing murder. When he meets the strangely taciturn owner of a shabby local bistro, Madame Calas, who says her husband is away, the pieces start to fall into place. But, as the dogged, laconic detective discovers, nothing in this tangled case is as it seems.

Why are Emile and Marguerite Bouin still married? They cannot stand each other. This is evident from the moment we meet them, isolated and wordless before a beautiful fire. Their only correspondence is an occasional invective jotted on a scrap of paper--this discreetly flicked across the room to the recipient's lap. A bizarre situation to be sure, but ideal for Simenon. Taking marriage born of a desperate need for companionship and following it to its devastation eight years later, Simenon patiently makes hate almost as alluring as love.

"Adrift, and troubled by her recent divorce from her bourgeoisie husband, we meet Betty alone in a bar. When she is embraced by an older woman, we learn of Betty's adulterous past. Feigning as a victim of high society exclusion, the truth of Betty is eventually revealed; that of a sinister woman overwrought with jealousy who cannot help but ensnare innocents into her dark webs of deception. Originally published in 1961, this psychological thriller caused a sensation and became an instant classic which inspired a film adaptation of the same title."--Provided by publisher

On the shore of the Black Sea, on the edge of the Soviet Union, a little city has a new Turkish consul. Adil Bey - alone in an alien land - has taken the job after the mysterious death of his predecessor. Receiving only suspicion and hostility, he soon becomes reliant on his secretary, Sonia, for any taste of intimacy. They begin a quiet love affair, and from his window at the consulate, he watches her and her family go about their lives in the room across the way. But this is Stalin's world before the war, and nothing is as it seems. . . Georges Simenon's most starkly political work, The People Opposite is a tour de force of slow-burn tension and existentialist meditation.

To be honest, the profession he had always dreamed of did not exist. As a boy in his hometown, he felt that many people were not in their right place or took the wrong path simply because they lacked clarity. He imagined a man of infinite wisdom and insight, both a doctor and a priest, someone who could discern the fate of individuals with a mere glance. This man would be consulted like a physician, a sort of mediator of destinies. Not only because he was intelligent—perhaps he didn't even need exceptional intelligence—but because he could live the lives of others, empathizing with anyone. Maigret had never spoken of this to anyone, nor did he dare to think too seriously about it for fear of feeling ridiculous. Unable to complete his medical studies, he had entered the police force by chance. But was it truly just chance? And aren't police officers sometimes mediators of destinies themselves?

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithCelebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Georges Simenon's brilliant pipe-smoking detective, Jules Maigret, is one of the most beloved literary creations of the twentieth century. In this adventure, an officer from Scotland Yard is studying Maigret's methods when a call from an island off the Cote d'Azure sends the two men off to an isolated community to investigate its eccentric inhabitants.

Set in the in the atmospheric and squalid streets of Paris, Maigret sets out to prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. In another one of Maigret's unconventional and audacious plans, he arranges the escape of the condemned man in an attempt to prove his theory. The presumed murderer goes on the run across Paris and its suburbs, dropping misleading clues along the way and leading Maigret into the labyrinthine twists of the mystery. Maigret is in for more than he bargained for, as he encounters rich American expatriates, dangerous foreigners and their hidden motives.

Hector Loursat, a lawyer in the small town of Moulins, has lived as a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years previously. Unmoored from society and estranged from his daughter, he shuts himself away, numbed by endless bottles of burgundy. But when a dead man is found in his house one night, the resulting police investigation unearths secrets that shake the town - and Loursat's isolation - to the core. No longer able to ignore the world, he emerges to take on the murder case himself and confront the lives of Moulins' by-ways and back streets. In the progressive break-down of Loursat's self-imposed isolation, Simenon brilliantly depicts the psychology of loneliness and a man's tortured re-engagement with humanity and its darkest acts.

On a foggy winter's evening in Dieppe, after the arrival of the daily ferry from England, a railway signalman habitually scrutinizes the port from his tiny, isolated cabin. When a scuffle on the quayside catches his eye, he is drawn to the scene of a brutal murder and his once quiet life changes forever. A mere observer at first, he soon finds himself fishing a briefcase from the water and in doing so he enters a feverish and secret chase. As the murderer and witness stalk and spy on each other, they gain an increasingly profound yet tacit understanding of each other until the witness becomes an accomplice. Written in 1933, soon after the successful launch of the Inspector Maigret novels, this haunting, atmospheric novel soon became a classic and the inspiration for several film and TV adaptations.

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian A fictional autobiography of Maigret, Georges Simenon’s brilliant detective In this make-believe memoir, Maigret recounts a meeting with the author himself. The account starts with the arrival of Georges Sim, as he is called here, at the Paris Police Judiciaire to soak up atmosphere for his crime novels by dogging the footsteps of Inspector Maigret. The detective is irritated by the audacious young writer who names a character after him and argues that he oversimplifies, in his fiction, the intricate duties of the police investigating a case. Here, Maigret “sets the record straight,” telling readers how he’s different from the invention, and about his courtship and marriage to his beloved Louise. Ingeniously amusing and tender, Maigret’s Memoirs is a look inside the mind of the brilliant Maigret like never before.

Two of Simenon's Maigret crime stories, which originally appeared in "Maigret's Christmas".

Dutch translation of "Maigret a New York"

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian At a lavish dinner party, Inspector Maigret recounts the tale of an old case that has haunted him for years At one of his friends’ frequent dinner parties, Maigret shares the story of a case from a few years back that haunts him to this day, in which a man named Adrien Josset was found guilty and was executed for the murder of his wife, Christine. Adrien had been a weak-willed, mild-mannered man, but Christine, who was much wealthier than he, had used her connections to land him an influential position in an important career. Maigret had interviewed Adrien only once when the examining magistrate took over the case and successfully moved to have him executed. But though all the clues pointed to Adrien’s guilt, Maigret remained unconvinced, and years later, he still doubts the murderer’s true identity. Maigret’s Secret is a thought-provoking dive into the machinations of justice, and the ways in which they can sweep away an innocent man’s life.

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' When an unusually inquisitive stranger strikes up conversation with Justin Calmar on the train home from a family holiday, his sun-drenched memories are overshadowed by an event that will change his life forever. As he travels alone through northern Italy and Switzerland, his carefully constructed life as an upright citizen begins to unravel, revealing secret motivations and hidden impulses that threaten to overwhelm him. Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the spacious new home he had built in palinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian In Simenon’s iconic first novel featuring Inspector Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces a fraudster’s true identity Inspector Jules Maigret, a taciturn detective and commissaire of the Paris Brigade Criminelle, receives notice from Interpol that a notorious conman known only as Peitr the Latvian is en route to France. Armed with a broad description and a scant few clues, Maigret plans to intercept him at the train station outside Paris. But when he arrives, he finds that there are several suspects—some living, and some dead—who meet the description uncannily well. Who is Pietr the Latvian, truly? A vagrant, a seaman, a businessman, a corpse? Russian, Norwegian, American or Latvian? In Pietr the Latvian, the iconic first novel of Simenon’s classic series that made Inspector Maigret a legendary figure in the annals of detective fiction, Maigret must use his every instinct to unravel the mystery and track down the truth.