Simenon never fails.

A wonderful story by the master story-teller. Simenon captures every aspect of French urban and provincial life with immaculate succinctness. He's an unparalleled wordsmith on those grounds. If his novels are this superb in translated language, l can only imagine how wondrous they are in their original tongue. His stories are pithy yet full of pathos and understanding. His acerbic wit, characterised through his great detective, is glorious to behold, especially when spoken by the magnificent Gareth Armstrong. Maigret may be fictional but he's warmly human and humane.

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An excellent village story, full of character.

I recall seeing the Michael Gambon tv series version of this story a long time ago. I was starting to think that I’d imagined it, so was happy to hear it at last.
This is an excellent story, being set in a small village where non-locals are treated with suspicion. Maigret is fairly sure that the accused man didn’t murder the disliked postmistress, and slowly works his way around the villagers until he finally gets to the bottom of the mystery. As usual, Simenon is the master of the compact story with plenty of detail and character. Best of all is that brilliant realisation of Maigret himself. Both confident that he can dig around, but also at times not so certain of his own inclinations in practice. There is always plenty of alcohol in the stories, and Maigret has his fair share, but never to excess.
I’m surprised that this story hasn’t been adapted by any other of the tv series, I suppose there are just so many tales to call upon. Gareth Armstrong does his usual excellent job as narrator, such that you don’t always notice his work, he is not a showy reader.

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Classic Maigret, Captivatingly Read

This is a fantastic book, typical of Simenon’s approach to crime. The story is a simple one - an unpopular woman has been murdered and Maigret believes the wrong man is accused, but the other residents of his village are quite happy to see him condemned regardless. It’s an intriguing mystery, well resolved (I didn’t guess the killer) but as always with the best Maigrets, the plot isn’t really the point. Simenon had an almost unparalleled gift for character. He was always most at home when writing about those on the fringes of society; the forgotten and overlooked, the drunk and the rejected, the down-but-not-quite-outs. And yet, he writes these characters with such humanity and nuance that the effect is very rarely depressing. This book is a great example of that, as Maigret slowly puts together the pieces of the crime by getting to know the paysan residents of a rural French village, with all the generations-long alliances and rivalries, scandals and prejudices, loves and losses that implies. This is top tier Maigret, brought to vivid life as ever by the masterful narration of Gareth Armstrong.

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