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The Flemish House
- Inspector Maigret, Book 14
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
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The Flemish House
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Summary
"A new translation, by David Bellos, of this chilling novel, set on the Belgian border.
"She wasn't an ordinary supplicant. She didn't lower her eyes. There was nothing humble about her bearing. She spoke frankly, looking straight ahead, as if to claim what was rightfully hers. If you don't agree to look at our case, my parents and I will be lost, and it will be the most hateful legal error...."
Maigret is asked to the windswept, rainy border town of Givet by a young woman desperate to clear her family of murder. But their well-kept shop, the sleepy community, and its raging river all hide their own mysteries.
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.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Liz... Bristol
- 14-10-22
The sense of place is remarkable.
What I enjoy about the Maigret stories are the descriptions and the process of him solving the crime, not the solution itself. Sometimes I wouldn’t mind not knowing ‘whodunnit’, even. Am I alone in this? I’ve no idea. In this story, the weather and the locale are almost more important than the mystery, certainly as interesting. The muddy quays, the mist and rain, the quiet bars, the customs officials and talk of smuggling, the place itself seems alive; I feel that I’m right there alongside Maigret listening to the squabbles of all the locals with their suspicions and prejudices. The fact that the stories are on the short side (which initially troubled me) is now a bonus.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tomboy
- 16-04-22
Simenon - a French genius.
Another wonderful story by the magnificent Georges Simenon, wonderfully read by Gareth Armstrong. The sad thing about Simenon's novels is their brevity. l could listen to Armstrong read his beautifully crafted sparce and poetical lines all day long. There's not a single wasted word in a Simenon novel, and his stories are universally excellent, morally ambiguous and profoundly affecting. Simenon truly understood human nature in all of its aspects: good, bad and everything in between.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- FictionFan
- 17-06-22
Culture clash…
Maigret has been approached by a young woman, Anna Peeters, who wants his help. Her family is suspected of having killed another young woman, the lover of Joseph, Anna’s brother, and the mother of his child. Anna fears the local police are about to arrest them and wants Maigret to investigate separately. Since Anna has been introduced to him by an old friend, Maigret agrees, and heads to the small town of Givet on the Belgian border to look into the matter in an unofficial capacity.
This is a short one even by Maigret standards, coming in at just 132 pages, or 3 hours for the audiobook. It gives an interesting picture of a border town, looking in two directions and split between French and Belgian cultures. Simenon was Belgian by birth, although he moved to France as a young man. Here he shows how the French people in Givet look down on the Flemish residents, and because the Peeters family have done well for themselves they also meet with a lot of resentment, of the kind that suggests they are aiming above their station as members of a “lower” culture.
The Peeters themselves behave as if they think they are something special. The missing girl is a young French girl called Germaine Piedbouef and the Peeters see her as too common to marry their precious Joseph, who anyway is more or less betrothed to his cousin Marguerite. Germaine was last seen when she visited the Peeters’ house, looking for the monthly allowance that Joseph paid her for the maintenance of the child. Although no body has been found, the local police are assuming that she has been murdered and that the Peeters must have been involved, either having committed the murder as a group or at the least covering up for whichever one of them did the deed.
Maigret is less sure – perhaps the girl has simply given up hope that Joseph will marry her and run away to Paris, or perhaps despair has caused her to take her own life. And so he wanders around Givet talking to people, drinking plenty of the local Flemish drink of choice, genever (a kind of gin, apparently), and waiting for the local police to find Germaine, dead or alive. He becomes increasingly fascinated by the Peeters family. To him Joseph seems an unremarkable, rather weak young man, but his mother, sisters and cousin Marguerite all adore him immoderately and see him as the centre of their world. Anna particularly intrigues Maigret – she seems so sure of herself, so unemotional, but determined. He realises she is the true centre of the family, the person who holds them together and gives them strength.
Maigret does more actual detection in this one than is sometimes the case, and as always his setting is very well portrayed, with the added interest of the mixed culture. The dynamics within the Peeters family is also shown very believably, from a time when men were seen as the most important members of a family due largely to their greater opportunities to have a career and a place in the public sphere. The ending is a little odd in that it left me wondering why Maigret decided to do what he did – vague to avoid spoilers, sorry – but it added an interesting element to his character. A good one, and as usual the excellent narration by Gareth Armstrong added to my enjoyment. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Nicky Ramone
- 16-10-23
Simply told story, well narrated
Simenon wastes no time getting the story told and races towards the conclusion while Maigret himself barely gets above walking pace. I really enjoyed it.
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