Inspector Maigret Books
The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos. Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man. His firm muscles filled out his jacket and quickly pulled all his trousers out of shape. He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues. In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian. 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. David Bellos is Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University and has won many awards for his translations including the Man Booker International Translator's Award (2005).
One of the canal carters stumbled on the corpse of Mary Lampson, strangled in a stable near the lock: the find plunged Maigret into the damp world of barges and towpath cafes. The woman's husband, a retired English colonel, was curt and unhelpful on board his yacht. But gradually Maigret extracted an account of the garish whisky-sodden life they had led along the inland waterways of France. It called for a chase on a bicycle and a confession from a dying man to draw together all the strands of a curious and pitiful story.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Georges Simenon’s devastating tale of misfortune, betrayal and the weakness of family ties “Instead of the detail filling itself in and becoming clearer, it seemed to escape him. The face of the man in the ill-fitting coat just misted up so that it hardly looked human. In theory this mental portrait was good enough, but now it was replaced by fleeting images which should have added up to one and the same man but which refused to get themselves into focus.” The circumstances of Monsieur Gallet’s death all ring false: the name the deceased was travelling under and his presumed profession, and more worryingly, his family's grief. Their haughtiness seems to hide ambiguous feelings about the hapless man. In this haunting story, Maigret discovers the appalling truth and the real crime hidden behind the surface of lies.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Inspector Maigret finds himself tangled up in a dreadful death, in Georges Simenon’s haunting tale about the lengths to which people will go to escape from guilt While in Brussels on police business, Inspector Jules Maigret witnesses a strange act: a scruffy-looking man counts out a large amount of currency and mails it to a Paris address. His instincts tell him there is more to this moment than meets the eye, and following an impulse, Maigret boards the man’s train, following him to Germany via Amsterdam. But in the course of his investigation, something goes horribly awry, and the man ends up dead. Maigret is devastated by the inadvertent role he played, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to the edge. In The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien , Georges Simenon examines the terrible weight guilt can place on a man’s conscience and the tragedies that can result when that weight gets to be too heavy to bear.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré An atmospheric Inspector Maigret mystery set in the bustling streets of Paris “Slowly the Czech was becoming animated, but in a muted way, so typical of the man. Maigret now noticed his hands, which were long, surprisingly white and dotted with freckles. They seemed to reach out and take part in the conversation. ‘Let ’ s be clear that it's not your professionalism which I question. If you understand nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, it's because from the very start you've been working with facts which had been falsified. ’ ” Maigret sets out to prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. As his audacious plan to uncover the truth unfolds, he encounters rich American expatriates, some truly dangerous characters, and their hidden motives.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A gripping mystery from Georges Simenon in which Inspector Maigret must go up against small town suspicion—and revenge In a small, seaside town in the northwest of France, the local wine dealer is wounded by a gunshot while retuning home drunk from a hotel bar. Maigret, who is heading up a mobile squad of the Paris police force, is called in by the mayor to solve the crime. But upon settling down in the hotel, Maigret quickly discovers a curious cast of characters awaits him there—and they all have something to hide. In the course of this strange case, a customs official is shot, a retired journalist is lost and found, and a vagrant is attested, but through it all Maigret has his sights set firmly in the direction of the truth, even as a strange yellow dog haunts the neighborhood. Fast-paced and wholly unpredictable, The Yellow Dog is a sharp mystery set against the cutthroat backdrop of small town politics.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A sensational tale of deceit and back-stabbing in an isolated community in which only Inspector Maigret can intervene “She came forward, the outlines of her figure blurred in the half-light....‘I gather you wish to talk to me, Inspector...but first of all please sit down...’ Her accent was more pronounced than Carl’s. Her voice sang, dropping on the last syllable of the longer words.” Maigret has been interrogating Carl Andersen for seventeen hours without a confession. He’s either innocent or a very good liar. So why was the body of a diamond merchant found at his isolated mansion? Why is his sister always shut away in her room? And why does everyone at Three Widows Crossroads have something to hide?
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Georges Simenon's thoughtful mystery set in a tranquil town on the Dutch coast “‘Just take a look,’ Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife. . . . ‘Everyone here earns his living. Everyone's more or less content. And above all, everyone keeps his instincts under control, because that's the rule here, and a necessity if people want to live in society.’” When a French professor visiting the quiet Dutch coastal town of Delfzjil is accused of murder, Maigret is sent to investigate. The community appears happy to blame an unknown outsider, but there are people much closer to home who seem to know much more than they're letting on: Beetje, the dissatisfied daughter of a local farmer, Any van Elst, sister-in-law of the deceased, and a notorious local crook.
Text: English, French (translation)
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré The city of Simenon's youth comes to life in this disturbing Inspector Maigret mystery set in Liège “In the darkness, the main room is as vast as a cathedral. A great empty space. Some warmth is still seeps from the radiators. Delfosse strikes a match. They stop a moment to catch their breath, and work out how far they have still to go. And suddenly the match falls to the ground, as Delfosse gives a sharp cry and rushes back towards the washroom door. In the dark, he loses his way, returns and bumps into Chabot.” Inspector Maigret observes from a distance as two boys are accused of killing a rich foreigner in Liège. Their loyalty, which binds them together through their adventures, is put to the test, and seemingly irrelevant social differences threaten their friendship and their freedom.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A forgotten crime comes to light in the heart of Parisian summer in this twisted Inspector Maigret tale “A radiant late afternoon. The sunshine almost as thick as syrup in the quiet streets of the Left Bank . . . there are days like this, when ordinary life seems heightened, when the people walking down the street, the trams and cars all seem to exist in a fairy tale.” A story told by a condemned man leads Maigret to a bar by the Seine and into the sleazy underside of respectable Parisian life. In the oppressive heat of summer, a forgotten crime comes to light.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A gripping domestic tragedy starring Inspector Maigret and set in Simenon’s very own neighborhood “One by one the lighted windows went dark. The silhouette of the dead man could still be seen through the frosted glass like a Chinese shadow puppet. A taxi pulled up. It wasn't the public prosecutor yet. A young woman crossed the courtyard with hurried steps, leaving a whiff of perfume in her wake.” Summoned to the dimly-lit Place des Vosges one night, where he sees shadowy figures at apartment windows, Maigret uncovers a tragic story of desperate lives, unhappy families, addiction and a terrible, fatal greed.
Chief Inspector Maigret returns to the village of Saint-Fiacre, where he was born, after a note to the police warns that a crime will take place, and soon after he arrives the Countess de Saint-Fiacre dies, leaving Maigret to find the killer
When a lovelorn factory girl with an illegitimate child disappears, the townspeople believe Joseph Peeters, the suspected father of her child, committed murder to free himself to marry another. Maigret must use his instincts to disprove Joseph's alibi or explain Germaine's disappearance.
The regularity of life in a quiet village on the English Channel is broken when the local harbor-master is murdered. Inspector Maigret, down from Paris, is on unfamiliar ground here as he plunges into the harborside gloom, searching for killer and motive. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
“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.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Inspector Maigret loses himself in coastal luxury—and danger—in this devastating mystery set on the French Riviera “It had a smell of holidays. The previous evening, in Cannes Harbour, with the setting sun, had also had the smell of holidays, especially the Ardena, whose owner swaggered in front of two girls with gorgeous figures...” Dazzled at first by the glamour of sunny Antibes, Maigret soon finds himself immersed in the less salubrious side of the Riviera as he retraces the final steps of a local eccentric.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré The classic Inspector Maigret mystery set in a claustraphobic provincial town “Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realized that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. . . . What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots’ bars and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau’s red chair framed by a window.”
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A gripping novel that sees Inspector Maigret brought out of his peaceful retirement “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.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré An Inspector Maigret mystery that brings the dark side of glamorous expat life in Paris to life In this riveting mystery from Georges Simenon, Maigret must investigate the murder of Mrs. Clark, the wife of a wealthy American industrialist, whose strangled body is found in the basement of an upscale hotel near the Champs-Élysées. Maigret’s inquiries take him from the endless corridors of the Hotel Majestic to the countryside of the Bois de Boulogne and sun-drenched Cannes, into a world of illicit sex work, drug addiction, and blackmail.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Exiled from Paris, Maigret discovers some disturbing secrets in a sleepy coastal town “A short, sprightly man appeared in the doorway, looked left and right, and went back into the passage. A moment later, the improbable happened. The little man reappeared, bent over, clinging to a long mass that he now started dragging through the mud. It must have been heavy. After four meters, he stopped to catch his breath. The front door of the house had been left open. The sea was still twenty or thirty meters away.” Maigret has been exiled from Paris to a remote province, having offended his superiors. Out of his element, he finds himself utterly bored—until a murder case arrives.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A moving novel about the destructive power of greed starring the unrivaled Inspector Maigret “Poor Cécile! And yet she was still young. Maigret had seen her papers: barely twenty-eight years old. But it would be difficult to look more like an old maid, to move less gracefully, in spite of the care she took to be friendly and pleasant. Those black dresses that she must make for herself from bad paper patterns, that ridiculous green hat!” In the dreary suburbs of Paris, the merciless greed of a seemingly respectable woman is unearthed by her long suffering niece, and Maigret discovers the far-reaching consequences of their actions.
Inspector Maigret investigates the death of fortuneteller Mademoiselle Jeanne, a case remarkable for its wealth of unconnected suspects and fragmentary clues
On an errand of mercy, Maigret travels to a provincial village whose crafty inhabitants nearly foil the sleuth. Translated by Helen Thomson. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Inspector Maigret is drawn out of retirement when a young woman is found dead in the Seine and her grandmother turns up at his door Two years into his retirement at Meung-sur-Loire, Maigret has yet to come across a case compelling enough to tempt him back into the business. But when 18-year-old Monita Malik is found dead in the Seine River, he is all but ordered to the small town of Orsennes by the girl’s grandmother. There, Maigret encounters Ernest Malik, an old acquaintance from his school days whom he’s always disliked on instinct, and it quickly becomes clear that Maigret’s presence is not welcome in Orsenne. When others from Orsenne’s elite families begin to go missing as well, Maigret can’t help but be swept up in the mystery.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When the son of a wealthy businessman fears for his father’s life, Maigret is plucked from retirement to visit New York on an unlikely quest Aged 56 and in his first year of retirement at Meung-sur-Loire, Maigret is surprised with a visit by Jean, the son of wealthy New York businessman John Maura. With the assistance of his aging lawyer, Jean convinces Maigret to accompany him to New York, where he believes his father is in danger. But things take an unexpected turn upon their arrival when it is Jean himself who disappears. Set against the mysterious backdrop of New York City, Maigret’s investigation must unearth old crimes, outsmart treacherous characters, and overcome his status as an outsider policeman in the city.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré While on holiday, Inspector Maigret is drawn into the murder of a teenage girl and subsequent disappearance of her brother and must confront an evil that is hidden in plain sight During their holidays in Sables-d’Olonne, Maigret’s wife is hospitalized with appendicitis and Maigret receives a strange note instructing him to visit a patient in another ward. To solve the mysterious case that has left a young woman dead and her brother missing, Maigret must give one of his best performances yet in a story laced with mood, class tension, and in the end, of course, justice.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré After receiving a series of mysterious calls from a man who later turns up dead, Inspector Maigret must plunge into the murky Parisian underworld to solve the case A man calls Maigret from a cafe and asks for police protection, saying he’s being followed by men trying to kill him. The next day, the man’s body is identified in the street. To catch the killer, Maigret must piece together the details of his dead man’s life, leading police into the crowded, fetid underground world of the Paris slums in the process.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a Paris musician witnesses an altercation that may have been a murder, the young Inspector Maigret becomes embroiled in his first case A musician walking home along the Rue Chaptal in the early hours of the morning sees a panic-stricken woman call for help from an upstairs window; moments later he hears a gun shot. He tries to go to her assistance, pushing past the man who opens the door upon his frantic knocking, but he finds himself roughly ejected from the premises. Undeterred, he heads for the nearest police station and urges Maigret to return with him and find out what has taken place. With this look into the man he once was and how he became the insightful inspector we have some to know, Simenon offers new insights into the brilliance of Maigret.
Maigret is going about his work in rainy Paris, followed around by Inspector Pyke who has come from Scotland Yard to study the famous French detective's methods. Routine is disturbed when Maigret receives a telephone call from the island of Porquerolles off the Mediterranean coast. A small-time crook has been murdered, the night after he had fervently declared his friendship with Maigret in front of a large group of the island's inhabitants. Maigret and Inspector Pyke leave the greyness of Paris for the sunshine of Porquerolles where Simenon creates a wonderfully evocative atmosphere of the square and cafe, the brilliant sea, the humidity in the air and the life and individuality of each of the inhabitants on the small island.
Text: English, French (translation)
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Inspector Maigret takes a case from a lively old widow whose maid has been poisoned The inexplicable murder of the wealthy Valentine Besson’s maid leads the older woman to believe that she herself was the intended target. Inspector Maigret undertakes the investigation, meeting Mrs. Besson’s dysfunctional family and a cavalcade of suspects. As he delves into the case, Maigret must unravel a tangled web of family politics—and confront Valentine’s stepsons, who may be harboring dark secrets of their own.
When two human teeth are found in the furnace of a Flemish bookbinder, police quickly take him into custody. Blood stains are discovered on a suit in the suspect's closet, but he denies ownership. Then, a strangely heavy suitcase found in his workshop disappears. A neighboring shoemaker is willing to talk but his story changes with successive trips to the local tavern and is discredited. Without a body, the case seems impossibly perplexing--until Madame Maigret offers her help. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré 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.
A case involving a countess's shadowy past draws Chief Inspector Maigret into the world of striptease artists and morphine addicts.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a man is killed outside a Parisian boarding house, Inspector Maigret moves in to get to the bottom of it While keeping watch outside Mademoiselle Clément’s boarding house to await a suspect in a local bar robbery, a man named Janvier is shot in the chest. When Maigret, whose wife is away caring for her sister in Alsace, hears of the crime, he moves into the boarding house to solve the case. But the web quickly grows ever-more tangled, and Maigret must navigate generations-long secrets and a torrid affair to find his answers before it’s too late.
While committing what he intends to be his last burglary, "Sad Freddie" discovers something completely out of his line: the body of a dead woman, her chest covered in blood, holding a telephone in her hand. Inspector Maigret is called in to solve the crime, and after an exhaustive search, a psychological duel, a marathon interrogation, and innumerable glasses of Pernod, wine, cold beer, and brandy--a sure sign that this is no easy case--the famous French sleuth triumphs. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon
After Inspector Maigret's assistant Detective Lognon, loses a body, three shady Americans arrive in Paris, and Pozzo, the restaurateur from St. Louis, discovers that he is dealing with professional criminals
After a frightened young man steals Maigret's revolver from his home and something macabre is discovered in a trunk at a railroad station, Maigret heads for London to investigate one murder and prevent another
Mondays are nobody's favorite day, but when Maigret's week begins with a corpse found stabbed to death in a Parisian alley, the Inspector immediately sees a flaw. Murders are rarely committed on Mondays. That clue, along with the victim's strange recent behavior, leads Maigret to the cause of this nasty crime-and reveals the tale of a deadly marriage. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon.
Visiting an old friend in the town of Fontenay-le-Comte, Inspector Maigret confronts three brutal, baffling murders and the sometimes frightening workings of small-town politics and justice
Maigret investigates the murder of Lulu Filon, a sad young woman with a past
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a public tragedy threatens to expose a scandal within the Paris government, the Minister of Public Works calls in a favor to Maigret A public project has collapsed and resulted in the death of 128 children after a report warning officials about the unsafe structure was disregarded. Now, that report has resurfaced, along with allegations that several politicians and contractors involved with the project may have suppressed its findings to avoid a scandal. Maigret must enter the shifty world of politics, dodged by members of the security police wherever he goes. In an unfamiliar world of decadent diplomatic officials, fanatic followers of political parties, and suspicious staff in politicians’ entourages, Maigret grimly sticks to what he knows best: finding the perpetrators of criminal acts.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When the body of a young girl is found in a Montmartre park, Maigret must team up with a rival investigator to bring her killer to justice. Maigret and fellow inspector Lognon clash in their investigations into the murder of an unknown young woman in Paris. Maigret endeavors to piece together the story of the girl, and in doing so, uncovers details about her past and her character that lead him to the truth behind her tragic demise.
A decapitated corpse, found in a Paris canal, leads Inspector Maigret to visit the eccentric owner of a small bistro
It is a hot and steamy summer, and Maigret is hatching a plan to capture a serial murderer by playing on the killer's perverse vanity. He finally succeeds when an important clue leads him to a trio of suspects. But the three are entangled in a web of guilt and possessiveness so tight that the unraveling nearly exhausts the Inspector--until, at last, he discovers the tortured motives behind the murders. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a childhood bully reappears in Maigret’s life, he struggles to put aside his own feelings and carry out his duties as an investigator. When Ferdinand Fumal, a wealthy butcher and political influencer, starts receiving anonymous death threats, he fears for his life, and Maigret is ordered to his protection. But upon meeting the man, Maigret realizes that Fumal was among the childhood bullies who tormented him as a boy. Maigret’s instinct is to pawn the job off on another officer—until Fumal turns up the next morning brutally slain that is. Racked with guilt, Maigret finds himself being blamed for the murder, and so must go about the agonizing task of bringing the murdered butcher’s killer to justice.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Convinced that he needs a vacation, Maigret resolves to take two weeks off—but when a scandalous murder makes headlines, he can’t help but get involved Maigret is given two weeks off work and decides to spend them in Paris with Madame Maigret, enjoying himself and avoiding police headquarters entirely. But when an interesting case arises in his absence with Inspector Janvier taking the lead, Maigret can’t resist his investigative urges. Through anonymous notes to Janvier, calls to newspaper reporters, and some creative independent sleuthing, Maigret Enjoys Himself finds our hero wrapped up in yet another murder—this time, off the clock.