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.
Main descriptionA new translation of Georges Simenon's gripping novel set in an insular fishing community, book eight in the new Penguin Maigret series.It was indeed a photograph, a picture of a woman. But the face was completely hidden, scribbled all over in red ink. Someone had tried to obliterate the head, someone very angry. The pen had bitten into the paper. There were so many criss-crossed lines that not a single square millimetre had been left visible.On the other hand, below the head, the torso had not been touched. A pair of large breasts. A light-coloured silk dress, very tight and very low cut.Sailors don't talk much to other men, especially not to policemen. But after Captain Fallut's body is found floating near his trawler, they all mention the Evil Eye when they speak of the Ocean's voyage.Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels.'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' IndependentGeorges 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. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations, releasing one new title each month.
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.
Main descriptionThe third book in the new Penguin Maigret series: Georges Simenon's haunting tale about the lengths to which people will go to escape from guilt, in a compelling new translation by Linda Coverdale.A first ink drawing showed a hanged man swinging from a gallows on which perched an enormous crow. And there were at least twenty other etchings and pen or pencil sketches that had the same leitmotif of hanging.On the edge of a forest: a man hanging from every branch.A church steeple: beneath the weathercock, a human body dangling from each arm of the cross. . . Below another sketch were written four lines from François Villon's Ballade of the Hanged Men.On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself.Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new transaltions.'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' IndependentGeorges 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.Linda Coverdale is the awarding-winning translator of many French works and has been honoured with the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contribution to French literature.
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.
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.
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.
