how many different ways...

Simenon can put Maigret anyway and still make the story compelling because he knows his character so well and tells him so truly, another grans episode, in which Maigret slices a murder by being Maigret.

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Excellent in every way.

The plot is first rate with Simenon’s descriptions painting vivid pictures and his characterisations so believable. Add to this a narrator as good as any I have heard and you have an audiobook to transport you away from where you are and off to the France of a bygone era.

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All in the family…

Maigret and his wife are on holiday in Les Sables d’Olonne when Mme Maigret is taken ill and needs a sudden operation. As she recuperates in a hospital, cared for by nuns, Maigret dutifully visits her for half an hour each day and spends the rest of his time wandering from bar to bar, creating a worldwide shortage of white wine. One day, Mme Maigret tells him about a new patient, a young girl in room 15, who has been brought in seriously injured following a car accident. Then Maigret finds a pencilled note in his pocket, telling him “For pity’s sake, ask to see the patient in room 15.” Too late, alas – the young girl dies. The local police are ready to write it off as a sad accident, but the note has roused Maigret’s curiosity and he sets out to learn more…

Lili Godreau, the young girl, had apparently fallen out of her brother-in-law’s car while he was driving it at high speed. So the question is simple – did she fall or was she pushed? If pushed, then the murderer can only be the brother-in-law, the respected Dr Bellamy. But the real mystery is, if Bellamy did murder Lili, why would he have done so? Maigret begins talking to the various residents of the town, gradually learning about Bellamy’s marriage to Lili’s sister, Odette, and the murky origins of both girls as the daughters of a woman who had been “kept” by various men throughout her younger life. Odette has inherited her mother’s beauty and Bellamy was so stricken by love for her that he was willing to overlook her social unacceptability and marry her, but only if her mother agreed to leave Les Sables d’Olonne. The mother agreed, leaving the then very young Lili in the care of Bellamy and Odette. So his relationship with Lili has been partly fraternal, partly parental. To the outside world, they got on well, though people gossiped about how strictly Bellamy monitored Odette’s movements, possibly fearing that her mother’s loose morals would have rubbed off on her.

When everything is so tightly held in a small family group, Maigret realises it will be hard to find out the truth about the family relationships and any possible motive for murder. But then another girl is killed – a girl Maigret had previously seen visiting the doctor’s house. Now he has a thread and hopes that, if he pulls it carefully enough, he will unravel the mystery…

Although there’s a real simplicity about this story, I found it absorbing. We follow Maigret almost minute by minute, listening in to every conversation he has, so that we learn the story at the same time as him. In that sense, there’s no big reveal or sudden twist. And yet there is still a degree of suspense in knowing whether Maigret will be able to turn his suspicions into provable facts. As his investigations progress, he begins to realise that the story may be more complex than he first thought, and the murderer may be more dangerous. So he also feels under pressure to work quickly to prevent any more murders.

As always, I like the Maigret books considerably more than I like Maigret! Apart from his incessant wine-swigging and general surliness, he is horrible to poor Mme Maigret in this one. His daily hospital visits are a penance to him and he really doesn’t do a good job of hiding it. Then, once he gets involved in the investigation, he stops phoning to check how she is and even stops visiting every day. Mme Maigret tolerates this with a good grace, putting herself in with a good chance of winning the Doormat of the Year award. I wonder what she ever found attractive about him? Does she perhaps know that he has a huge insurance policy made out in her favour and is hoping he drinks himself to an early death? It’s the only explanation I can think of for why she hasn’t divorced him long ago!

However, his desire to get justice for the victim is a sorely-needed redeeming feature. And the denouement, while low in tension, is strong in its depiction of human weakness and the evil that grows from it. I’m off to the shops now to see if stocks of white wine have recovered yet…

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brilliant

first time investigating the world of Maigret but very impressed. excellent narration and plot...I'll be back.

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