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.br>br>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.>
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.''br>br>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.br>br>Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the spacious new home he had built in Epalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.>
A small French summer resort has, in winter, become the gloomy scene of a series of murder attempts. While his assistant uses "scientific" means of detection, Maigret relies on his instincts, which lead him past a succession of charcters to the real culprit.
An ageing boxer caught in a love triangle. A wealthy Parisian family on the brink of collapse. A mysterious murder in a hotel in Cannes.These tales of human frailty and deceit - three of which are being published in English for the first time - distil the atmosphere, themes and psychological intensity that make Simenon''s famous detective series so compelling. br>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 stories encapsulate Simenon''s storytelling genius and economy of style.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>
Known as a respectable family man, Kees Popinga is the managing clerk of a reputed shipping firm. But when the company collapses under dubious circumstances, taking all his money with it, something snaps in Popinga's mind. From the shell of this model citizen emerges a calculating paranoiac, capable of random acts of violence - even murder.
Asked to help a friend's brother-in-law accused of murdering his daughter's lover, Maigret finds himself plunged into an atmosphere of animosity. Also, an old enemy - an ex-police officer nicknamed "Inspector Cadaver" - seems to be obstructing Maigret's investigation.
When a condemned man reveals the whereabouts of an unpunished murderer, Chief Inspector Maigret puts his holiday on hold. His investigation takes him to a bar on the Seine and the old crime is upstaged by a killing and Maigret finds a new drinking companion.
Madame Thouret had no trouble identifying her husband's body. What puzzled her was that he was wearing light brown shoes and a garish tie she'd never seen before. This story reconstructs the secret life of a vulnerable man who has made a desperate attempt to evade the failure and isolation of his rigidly conventional life.
Maigret becomes increasingly frustrated as his attempts to prove that a brutal, repulsive murder has been committed at a local bookbinder prove fruitless. The mystery revolves around a series of seemingly unconnected incidents and characters, set amongst the backdrop of Marais district in Paris. It is Madame Maigret who provides the vital clue.
When a woman is found strangled in a stable near Lock 14, her husband is unmoved and unhelpful. Gradually, a story of whiskey-fuelled orgies and a nomadic lifestyle unfold, but can the crime be solved from aboard the yacht, or somewhere else along the canal?
Set against a high-profile hunt for the latest criminal gang to hit Paris, Maigret is determined to track down the murderer of a quiet crook of the old school, for whom he cannot help feeling affection and respect.
In a great courtroom drama, Maigret has to explain why he does not believe that Gaston Meurant was capable of slitting his aunt's throat for money and smothering a small child. But in saving him from the gallows, Maigret must expose some dark secrets about Meurant's life.
In the luxury Hotel Majestic, the French wife of a wealthy American businessman is discovered, murdered, in a locker in the hotel's dank basement. The story touches on the illusions of class, the fragility of respectability, and the dark secrets that can unite the most unlikely people.
After being shot following a man who has mysteriously jumped off a moving train, Maigret gets caught up in an investigation in a provincial French town terrorized by a maniacal murderer. "The Madman of Bergerac" captures the obsessive snobbery and hypocrisy of small-town bourgeoise.
Five women have been found stabbed to death in the Montmartre district of Paris and the killer is still at large; desperate, angry and exhausted, Maigret sets a trap for the killer - with terrible consequences.
