Monday, July 24, 2023

Maigret in trouble

In Maigret Defends Himself (1962), Georges Simenon gives us one of the most unusual murder mysteries you will ever read in that Maigret solves the murder case even before the reader realizes there has been a murder.

Maigret, a famed Paris police detective, is just a few years away from retirement when he himself becomes the suspect. A young woman tells Maigret's superiors that he got her drunk, took her to a hotel room and took advantage of her. Only Maigret knows that is a lie, but the lie threatens his career and his reputation.

The detective defies orders to investigate the matter himself. Obviously someone is using the woman to try to destroy him. Is it revenge or is it an attempt to prevent him from discovering something? Following his intuition as well as the few vague clues he uncovers, Maigret, in just 155 pages, gets to the shocking bottom of things.

I become a bigger Simenon fan with every Maigret book I read. This is the best one I have found yet.

No comments:

Post a Comment