Publisher Description

Maigret heads to a small seaside town where the residents are closing ranks to hide the truthWhen a school teacher from near La Rochelle asks Maigret for help to defend his innocence, Maigret returns with him to a small coastal town and confronts the insular community in order to discover the truth.

Notes

One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Penguin are publishing all 75 Maigret novels in authentic new translations.

Back Cover

'A unique teller of tales' Observer What was he doing there? A hundred times, in the middle of an investigation, he'd had the same feeling of helplessness or, rather, futility. He would find himself abruptly plunged into the lives of people he had never met before, and his job was to discover their most intimate secrets. This time, as it happened, it wasn't even his job. He was the one who had chosen to come, because a teacher had waited for him for hours in the Purgatory at the Police Judiciaire. When a school teacher from a small coastal town near La Rochelle asks Maigret to help prove he is innocent of murder, the Inspector returns with him to his insular community and finds the residents closing ranks to conceal the truth.

Author Biography

Georges Simenon (Author)Georges Simenon was born in Li ge, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and 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.

Review

Praise for Georges Simenon:

"One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories." —The Guardian

"These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself." —The Washington Post

"The matchless French crime novelist." —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

"Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals." —People

"I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov." —William Faulkner

"An astute observer of human nature, writing in a spare and vivid style." —Amor Towles

"I never read contemporary fiction–with one exception: the works of Simenon." —T.S. Eliot

"A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason." —John Le Carré

"One of the most important writers of our century." —Gabriel García Márquez

"A favorite writer of mine." —Sigrid Nunez

"A great writer of detail, of atmosphere." —Leïla Slimani

"Feels incredibly modern…A great writer." —Ian Rankin

"The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature." —André Gide

"A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness." —The Independent (London)

"Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales." —The Observer (London)

"Compelling, remorseless, brilliant." —John Gray

"A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates." —Muriel Spark

"A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it." —Peter Ackroyd

"Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century." —John Banville

"Gem-hard soul-probes . . . 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" Times (London)

"Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it's the food that counts." Margaret Atwood

"One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere." Financial Times

"Gripping . . . richly rewarding . . . You'll quickly find yourself obsessing about his life as you tackle each mystery in turn." Stig Abell, The Sunday Times (London)

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Maigret heads to a small seaside town where the residents are closing ranks to hide the truth.

Review Quote

Praise for Georges Simenon "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." -- The Guardian "These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself." -- The Washington Post "Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals." -- People "I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov." --William Faulkner "The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature." --Andr

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Maigret heads to a small seaside town where the residents are closing ranks to hide the truth

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