Georges Simenon
Books by Georges Simenon
Death Threats and Other Stories
A collection of five short stories from various stages in the career of Inspector Maigret, demonstrating different aspects of the famous French detective.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Little Man from Archangel
When his wife fails to return home one night, Jonas Milk finds himself suspected of murder by neighbours who he always regarded as friends but he comes to realise that what he imagined was acceptance is in truth only skin-deep.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and Monsieur Charles
In his last appearance, Maigret investigates the disappearance of Monsieur Charles, a wealthy lawyer well-known in Paris nightclubs.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Informer
The body of a restaurateur is dumped on a Paris street and an informer points the finger. Maigret exercises his skills to get the evidence needed.
Reviewed on 13 June 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Wine Merchant
When a wealthy wine merchant is shot dead in a Paris street, the lengthy list of people who detested the victim complicates Maigret’s investigation.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret Hesitates
Chief Inspector Maigret receives a series of anonymous letters threatening murder in the household of an eminent lawyer.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by John Cleal
Maigret in Vichy
Maigret is ordered to take the waters in the spa town of Vichy, but his rest cure is disturbed when a woman is murdered.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Linda Wilson
Maigret and the Killer
A young man with a particular interest in recording the voices of strangers is stabbed and killed in the street during an early spring downpour. The hobby initially proves to be a distraction for Maigret.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret's Pickpocket
Maigret’s wallet is stolen but then returned to him, with nothing missing. The detective is intrigued when a mysterious man admits to the theft.
Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's Childhood Friend
An old schoolmate calls on Maigret to inform him of a murder, and expects some allowance to be made for old acquaintance despite the fact that he is clearly the prime suspect.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Nahour Case
Maigret is woken early in the morning by an old friend who says he has a story Maigret needs to hear.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's Patience
A series of daring robberies bring Maigret together with an old adversary.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Ghost
Inspector Lognon of the 18th arrondissement is shot in the street and is in intensive care. Apparently, he had been in the habit of visiting a young woman’s apartment – something Maigret finds difficult to believe of Inspector Hard-Done-By. But he cannot interview her because she has disappeared.
Reviewed on 15 June 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Defends Himself
When Maigret receives a formal notification to attend an interview with the Prefect of Police, he is alarmed. He is even more so when it turns out that he has been accused of assaulting an 18-year-old girl, whose father has important political connections.
Reviewed on 01 June 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Saturday Caller
Maigret is walking to the bus stop after work one Saturday evening when he notices a man apparently following him. When he arrives home his wife tells him that someone is waiting to see him. It is the same man.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse
René Josselin is a retired businessman living a comfortable life and generally regarded as a good man. It comes as a great shock when he is found one evening shot dead in his armchair.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret in Court
When a woman and child are murdered, Maigret finds himself in court, uneasy with the way human events are distorted through the prism of official proceedings.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
Maigret's Secret
A well-known wealthy woman is found stabbed to death in a frenzied attack. Maigret interviews her husband and cannot make up his mind about his guilt or innocence.
Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's Failure
Maigret is visited by a village school acquaintance he had never liked. He tells the detective that he has been receiving letters threatening to kill him and, reluctant as Maigret is to get involved with the man, he decides to make enquiries.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Travels
Maigret investigates the death of a very wealthy Englishman.
Reviewed on 01 September 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Enjoys Himself
Maigret, recuperating from a bout of bronchitis, has been given instructions by his doctor to rest and take a holiday. When an intriguing crime is committed, however, he finds it impossible not to become involved, even unofficially.
Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Sets a Trap
The investigation into a series of five identical murders, all women and all in the Montmartre arrondissement has stalled, but Maigret now has a plan that he hopes will move the investigation forward.
Reviewed on 23 June 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Headless Corpse
A dismembered body, found in the Canal St-Martin, presents Maigret with a thoroughly baffling case involving a taciturn woman. And the examining magistrate wants quick results.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Minister
A telephone call from the Minister for Public Works heralds a case of unusual complexity for Maigret.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Dead Girl
When the body of a dead girl is found on Place Vintimille. Maigret and Janvier go to investigate.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Goes To School
A schoolteacher from the coastal village of Saint-André-sur-Mer, Charente, visits Maigret with a request that he prove him innocent of murder. Maigret agrees to go back to the village with him to see what he can do.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Man on the Bench
Maigret receives a call from Inspector Neveu of the Troisième Arrondissement saying that a man has been stabbed to death on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, that the murder seems out of the ordinary and that he would be grateful for his help.
Reviewed on 20 January 2018 by Arnold Taylor
A Maigret Christmas
Three Simenon short stories, set at Christmas.
Reviewed on 16 December 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Is Afraid
Maigret is on a train returning from an international police conference when an expensively-dressed man recognises him and begins to engage him in conversation. He seems to know why Maigret is on the train.
Reviewed on 28 October 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's Revolver
Maigret receives a call from his wife telling him that a young man wants to see him. When he arrives the young man has left, taking with him Maigret’s revolver.
Reviewed on 02 August 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters
Maigret receives a call from the wife of the lugubrious Inspector Lognon to say that her husband has disappeared and that men have broken into her house. He decides that he needs to visit her to see what is happening.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret and the Tall Woman
Maigret receives a surprise visit from a former prostitute he had arrested many years before. She tells a strange story and asks for his help.
Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret Takes a Room
Janvier, one of Maigret’s inspectors, is shot and wounded whilst keeping watch on a boarding house as part of an investigation into a night club robbery. Madame Maigret is away visiting her sister in hospital and so Maigret takes a room there.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's First Case
Maigret is informed of a possible case of murder in the early hours of the morning. When a young man knocks on the door of the house to investigate he is beaten up by a manservant. Maigret decides to pay a visit to the house.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret at the Coroner's
Maigret, visiting the United States to familiarise himself with American police methods, finds himself a spectator at a coroner’s inquest into the death of a young woman.
Reviewed on 04 February 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret's Dead Man
Maigret has to choose whether to believe a woman who thinks everybody is trying to poison her and a man who rings him out of the blue, asking for his immediate help.
Reviewed on 15 October 2016 by Arnold Taylor
Maigret in New York
Maigret agrees to a request from a young Paris lawyer, fearful for his father’s life, to sail to New York and find out what is happening to him.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Arnold Taylor
Cécile is Dead
Nobody in Maigret’s office takes Cécile seriously when she insists that there is a frequent intruder in her flat. However, when Maigret decides to pay a call on her, just to be on the safe side, he finds that her aunt, with whom she lives, has been murdered.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Arnold Taylor
The Misty Harbour
A man who does not know his own identity is picked up by Paris police. Maigret sets about trying to discover who the man is.
Reviewed on 11 June 2016 by Arnold Taylor
The Blue Room
A couple conducting an affair have a near miss with being discovered. This leads to the end of an affair but the beginning of a nightmare.
Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by Arnold Taylor
The Flemish House
During a windswept January, Maigret makes an unofficial trip to the Belgian border to investigate the disappearance of a young woman.
Reviewed on 21 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Two-Penny Bar
The night before his execution, condemned man Lenoir tells Maigret of a murderer he was blackmailing – a man who was recently seen at a two-penny bar.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Saint-Fiacre Affair
An anonymous message Maigret receives predicting a death during the mass on All Souls Day prompts him to return to the village in which he was born.
Reviewed on 29 August 2015 by Arnold Taylor
The Shadow Puppet
Maigret is summoned late at night by a telephone call from the concierge of an apartment block in the Place des Vosges. She tells him that a man is dead and that she suspects murder.
Reviewed on 18 July 2015 by Arnold Taylor
A Man's Head
Chief Inspector Maigret embarks on an audacious scheme to prove the innocence of a man awaiting execution and must confront a killer convinced of his own intellectual superiority.
Reviewed on 06 June 2015 by John Cleal
The Grand Banks Café
Maigret is asked by an old friend to look into the case of a former pupil of his who has been arrested for murder in the fishing port of Fécamp after returning from three months at sea. He agrees and enters a dark and seemingly mysterious world
Reviewed on 08 May 2015 by Arnold Taylor
A Crime In Holland
Jean Duclos, a French university professor, is on a lecture tour and has just given a talk at Delfzijl, a small town in Holland, when the owner of the house in which he is a guest is shot dead. Maigret is sent there in an unofficial capacity at the request of the university at which M. Duclos teaches.
Reviewed on 07 February 2015 by Arnold Taylor
The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin
Two boys, attempting to burgle a Liège nightclub, find a body on the premises and flee. When, a day or so later, the body turns up in the botanical gardens the boys and the nightclub staff come under suspicion.
Reviewed on 13 December 2014 by Arnold Taylor
The Mahé Circle
On holiday by the Mediterranean, the staid Doctor Mahé catches a glimpse of a different life, which gradually becomes an obsession.
Reviewed on 01 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
Pietr the Latvian
Inspector Maigret observes an infamous criminal arrive by train, but uncovers a puzzle when the man’s double is found dead in his carriage.
Reviewed on 03 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Late Monsieur Gallet
A very ordinary man is killed by an unknown assailant at a hotel in the wine-growing village of Sancerre. There is no apparent motive and the information that Maigret begins to gather serves only to make the case more mysterious.
Reviewed on 05 April 2014 by Arnold Taylor
