Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903-1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French. He was extraordinarily prolific, publishing over 500 novels and numerous shorter works. He is best known and mostly represented here by his novels featuring the detective Jules Maigret.
Between 1931 and 1972, Simenon published 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. In doing so he created one of the great detective personas, worthy of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and Travis McGee. Compared to such colleagues, Maigret is almost nondescript — he is gruff, patient, scrupulously fair, quiet, persistent, thoughtful, non-demonstrative. He has no real eccentricities, no flourishes, no quirks, no attitude other than determining what happened and who was responsible. And yet, his world and his existence in it is compelling, even addictive. Whatever issues his creator may have had with truth and good behavior, Maigret is dedicated to them in all their relative messy relationships with people and their stories and their lives.
The books do not have to be read in any particular order. Once you sample one, however, and want to try some more (inevitably), you may want to read a stretch of them in the order in which they were written. Sometimes the only clues to the passing of time in our “real” world are the technological changes mentioned in the novels. Maigret — ageless, steadfast — remains the same.
The Hatter's Ghosts
The Hatter's Ghosts
“Dark, disturbing . . . Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul.” —The Guardian
A string of murders has the small French town of La Rochelle in its grip. The victims, all elderly women, have been found strangled with cello string—in cafés, over card games, near the canal. As the winter rain gives cover to the killer stalking the streets with impunity, we watch as he deliberates over and justifies his heinous acts to himself, unaware that the quiet, unassuming tailor, Kachoudas, has discovered his secret. In this chilling game of cat and mouse we follow along in the steps of the killer, unsure if his crimes will be brought to light by the one man who knows his secret, or if Kachoudas will end up being the next of his victims in this masterful tale of murder and intrigue.