Georges Simenon Boeken

The Yellow Dog The citizens of Concarneau are not happy when Maigret begins his murder investigation: but there is poison in the Pernod, a howling yellow dog and it seems, a madman on the loose. Maigret and the Burglar's Wife While committing a burglary, 'Sad Freddie' discovers the body of a dead woman, holding a telephone in her hand. Can Maigret believe the burglar's wife in the face of other evidence? Inspector Cadaver During investigations, Maigret has to deal with an old enemy - an ex-police officer nicknamed 'Inspector Cadaver' - who seems to be doing everything in his power to obstruct him. Maigret's Little Joke Maigret and his wife take a secret holiday in Paris. When a murder occurs, Maigret must get his information from the press and radio. How can he leave Janvier to solve the crime alone?

In deze omnibus zijn drie van zijn psychologische romans opgenomen.

Deze bundel uit Simenons grote tijd bewijst weer eens hoezeer Simenon een meester is in het vertellen van boeiende en sfeervolle verhalen.In het titelverhaal worden wij geconfronteerd met een crime de passion begaan uit jaloezie, iets waar de Fransen altijd zeer begrijpend tegenover hebben gestaan. Het dienstmeisje van een longarts (zij verrichtte ook diensten op het zeer persoonlijke vlak) wordt vermoord via een ingenieuze en gruwelijke methode: roggenaalden. De oude clochard Maandag die één maal per week ten huize van de chique longarts mag komen eten bracht deze venijnige naalden mee, verstopt in moorkoppen!Twee lijken aan boord van een trekschuit (La péniche aux deux pendus)De vergiftingszaak op de boulevard Beaumarchais (L'affaire du boulevard Beaumarchais)Het open raam (La fenêtre ouverte)Maigret en meneer Maandag (Monsieur Lundi)Het raadsel van de trein in de nacht (Jeumont, 51 minutes d'arrêt)De reddende moord (Peine de mort)De druppels kaarsvet (Les larmes de bougie)Rue Pigalle (Rue Pigalle)Een vergissing van Maigret (Un erreur de Maigret)

Jonas Milk, de kleine man uit Archangelsk - zoals de letterlijke vertaling van de titel van deze roman luidt - heeft zich, hoewel van oorsprong vreemdeling, in de Franse provinciestad altijd voortreffelijk thuis gevoeld. Over zijn huwelijk met zijn veel jongere vrouw Gina heeft hij zich nooit veel vragen gesteld, er waren nooit echt belangrijke problemen. Totdat plotseling, volkomen buiten zijn schuld, Gina spoorloos verdwijnt. Jonas, in de war gebracht, verzint voor zichzelf en de buitenwereld een voor de hand liggende verklaring. Maar niemand gelooft of vertrouwt hem. Hij is verdacht en wordt daarom onherroepelijk uit de gemeenschap verdreven...

Onderzoeksrechter Victor Bréjon, een vriend van Maigret, overtuigt de commissaris om naar de Vendée te reizen om een moord op te lossen: Bréjons zwager, een welvarende en in het dorp onpopulaire landeigenaar, zou een jonge man hebben vermoord. De commissaris stuit op een muur van stilte en ontmoet tot zijn grote ergernis een voormalige collega van het Quai des Orfèvres: Justin Cavre, bijgenaamd "Inspecteur Cadavre", die inmiddels de leiding heeft over een privé-detectivebureau en al met de zaak bezig is - en altijd een stap voor is op Maigret. Maigrets 24e zaak speelt zich af in een fictief dorp in de Vendée.

Vain, womanising Tony and passionate, manipulative Andree met eight times in eleven months in the blue room at the Hotel des Voyageurs for afternoons of abandoned love. For Tony the conversation that last time was just the casual, almost banal, talk of lovers. But for Andree it was something else. And it led inevitably to an appalling double murder and a nightmare which Tony couldn't escape.

De plotselinge dood van haar dienstmeisje is voor een weduwe aanleiding de hulp in te roepen van commissaris Maigret.

Nederlandse vertaling van "Maigret a l'Ecole". Zwarte Beertjes 38. "De moord op een bejaarde vrouw brengt Maigret naar Saint-Andre sur Mer, een kleine dorpsgemeenschap waarin iedereen elkaar kent. Maigret stelt zich voor deze zaak snel tot een oplossing te kunnen brengen en er voorts te genieten van oesters en witte wijn op een terras aan de oceaan. Maar Meigret merkt al gauw hoe gesloten zo'n dorpse samenleving kan zijn. Van vakantie is vooralsnog geen sprake, van een oplossing nog minder... [tekst omslag]

Commissaris Maigret volgt het spoor van een moordenaar via Nice naar Genève en weer terug naar Parijs.

De dokter van een Amerikaanse zakenman wordt in Florence ontvoerd door mensen die goed thuis zijn in het Toscaanse heuvelland.

Dit boek verscheen eerder onder de titel "De man van Oebangi" Michel Maudet wordt na verscheidene mislukkingen secretaris van de oude miljonair Dieudonné Ferchaux. Om arrestatie voor vroegere misdaden te ontlopen, besluit de miljonair in gezelschap van Michel naar Zuid-Amerika te vluchten, na in Frankrijk een financieel schandaal te hebben ontketend. In deze nieuwe wereld wordt hem echter het grootste deel van zijn fortuin afhandig gemaakt en verliest hij zijn geheimzinnige macht, terwijl een slopende ziekte hem verandert in een zielige oude man. Michel, die hem vroeger bewonderde en in hem zijn meerdere moest erkennen, voelt nu nog slechts weerzin tegen de eertijds gevreesde 'man van Oebangi', maar hij mist de kracht hem voorgoed te verlaten. De bijzondere verhouding tussen de twee mannen vindt een einde in de dramatische ontknoping, die Simenon met ongenadige scherpte beschrijft.

Dagboek over de liefdesrelatie tussen een succesvolle advocaat en een cliënte.

Nederlandse vertaling van "Le Charretier de la Providence"

In "Maigret in 'Het Hellegat'" wordt een auto uit het water gevist. In de kofferbak ligt een vrouw die al minstens drie dagen dood moet zijn. "De oude dame uit Bayeux" wordt dood aangetroffen in haar woning. Haar gezelschapsdame en haar neef beschuldigen elkaar van de moord. "Stan de Killer" is de leider van een moorddadige bende. Niemand kent hem, iedereen is bang van hem. Dan biedt iemand Maigret de leider te ontwapenen... In "Hôtel Étoile du Nord", een derderangs hotelletje, is een man vermoord. Over twee dagen gaat Maigret met pensioen en zijn hoofd staat helemaal niet naar deze zaak.

Wanneer een van de leden van een familie van biscuitfabrikanten is vermoord, komt Maigret in actie.

Mit seiner Kochkunst ist es dem kleinen Gastwirt aus der Provinz gelungen, ein florierendes Bistro im alten Pariser Hallen-Viertel aufzubauen. Doch dann bricht er plötzlich mitten im hektischen Essenstrubel tot zusammen. Was soll aus seinem Lebenswerk werden? Seine Witwe und die drei Söhne verfolgen ganz unterschiedliche Pläne: Antoine will in die Fußstapfen des Vaters treten und das Bistro weiterführen, doch Ferdinand und Bernard brauchen dringend Geld. Doch davon wie auch von einem Testament fehlt jede Spur. Dann taucht ein Schlüssel zu einem Bankschließfach auf, dessen Inhalt alle überrascht.

Collects over one hundred recipes from the fictional, but enviable notebooks of the wife of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret, providing full instructions, methods, accompaniments, and alternatives

This volume is the first in the Tout Maigret series, gathering the investigations of one of the key characters in detective literature. Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories allow readers to rediscover the most famous hero of 20th-century literature, a hero who is distinct, human, and universal.

The story presents the famous Inspector Maigret in a new role as a husband, with his wife assisting him in unraveling a complex murder case. Her involvement is so effective that he teasingly refers to her as "Mme la commissaire Maigret." This narrative showcases the dynamics of their relationship while maintaining the hallmark mastery of the renowned crime author. It explores themes of partnership, trust, and the intersection of personal and professional lives, all set against the backdrop of a gripping mystery.

Paris has taken its toll and Maigret is sent to Vichy for the cure, but the Inspector finds it difficult to give his curiosity a rest. He compiles a mental dossier on his fellow guests, including a curious woman he and Madam Maigret note in particular -- the lady in lilac. When a headline in the local paper announces the woman's murder, Maigret -- with some relief -- interrupts his routine to aid the investigation. The arrival of the dead woman's sister provokes more questions than answers but Madame Maigret, as always, puts everything in the proper perspective.

“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 Inspector Maigret finds himself caught in the middle of a husband and wife duo’s case of “he said/she said”—with murderous consequences An unusually quiet day for Inspector Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman Xavier Manton. Maigret is taken aback by Manton’s revelation that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him. And when he receives a visit from Madame Manton expressing her own grave concerns later that day, he finds himself deeply conflicted, unsure of whom to trust. Maigret heeds the advice of his seniors and begins investigating the couple—and with every turn, new complications arise. When the case comes to a boil and a body is discovered, everyone, including Maigret, is shocked. Maigret’s Doubts is an engrossing mystery of marriage and deceit that forces the reader to question whether our brilliant inspector may be fallible after all.

When Maigret receives a visit from an old schoolmate whose mistress has been shot to death, he feels compelled to look into the case. Yet his friend is one of the suspects-along with the dead woman's four other lovers, each unknown to the others. The basis for a public television Mystery! presentation. Translated by Eileen Ellenbogen. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Nobody mentioned the victims, or the terror that had gripped the town. For the last twenty days it had rained and between the usual quiet conversations and card games, only the trickle of water and the air of cold fear could be detected. A serial killer stalks La Rochelle's cobbled streets - and by the most unfortunate of occurrences, Kachoudas, a poor timid tailor and a newcomer to the town, knows exactly who it is... One of Georges Simenon's darkest novels, The Hatter's Ghosts is a riveting portrait of murder and subterfuge, at once a cat and mouse thriller and an acute physiological study of the criminal imagination.

Dan said he would go back out into the snowstorm to look for Ray. Instead he has spent the last few hours on a red bench in the barn, smoking cigarette after cigarette. As he replays his memories of recent months, of the dinner party that evening in Connecticut and the journey home with their wives, his heroic search for his friend turns into a trial of their friendship - one that could leave Ray to perish in the snow.

Nineteen-year-old Frank Friedmaier lives in a country under occupation. Most people struggle to get by; Frank takes it easy in his mother's whorehouse, which caters to members of the occupying forces. But Frank is restless. He is a pimp, a thug, a petty thief, and, as Dirty Snow opens, he has just killed his first man. Through the unrelenting darkness and cold of an endless winter, Frank will pursue abjection until at last there is nowhere to go. Hans Koning has described <i>Dirty Snow&lt;?i&gt; as "one of the very few novels to come out of German-occupied France that gets it exactly right." In a study of the criminal mind that is comparable to Jim Thompson's <i>The Killer Inside Me</i>, Simenon maps a no man's land of the spirit in which human nature is driven to destruction—and redemption, perhaps, as well—by forces beyond its control.</i>

'Read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday Times Captain Lannec has finally managed to buy his own ship with the financial help of his in-laws, the Pitards - and they've never let him forget it. When his temperamental wife Mathilde insists on coming along on the ship's first voyage, Lannec becomes increasingly unnerved by her presence, especially when he receives an anonymous note saying he won't make it back to port. As they hit a storm in the Atlantic, jealousy, spite, snobbery and suspicion are churned up in the boat's stiflingly close quarters... First published in 1935, The Pitards was one of the first novels Simenon wrote when he shelved his famous Maigret series in order to strike out in a new direction and make a name for himself as a literary writer. This gripping evocation of life at sea revolves around class and the tense unravelling of relationships, powerful themes that Simenon would return to throughout his writing career.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré In this Georges Simenon classic, a Dutch clerk flees to Paris with his crooked boss’s money and meets the woman behind the man “A certain furtive, almost shameful emotion . . . disturbed him whenever he saw a train go by, a night train especially, its blinds drawn down on the mystery of its passengers.” Kees Popinga is a respectable Dutch citizen and family man—until the day he discovers his boss has bankrupted the shipping firm he works for, and something snaps. Kees used to watch the trains go by on their way to exciting destinations. Now, on some dark impulse, he boards one at random, and begins a new life of recklessness and violence. The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By is a chilling portrayal of a man who breaks from society and goes on the run asks who we are, and what we are capable of.

Here in notebooks that were never intended for publication, Simenon reflects on his life in some of the most candid revelations ever written. He reflects on his past - his childhood in Liege, the wild parties in Paris and travels around the world - and also examines his motivations and his attitude to work.

English, French (translation)

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When an innocent young man is accused of murder, Maigret is forced to question the blind justice of the law In this thrilling courtroom drama, inspector Maigret comes to the defense of Gaston Meurant, a quiet Parisian picture framer accused of slitting his aunt’s throat for money and smothering a small child. Maigret can’t reconcile the violent portrait the court is painting with the man his investigations have revealed. But in order to save an innocent life from the gallows, Maigret must expose some dark secrets about Meurant, secrets that may expose him to a whole other kind of danger. With a high-stakes courtroom setting that brings out a side of Maigret’s brilliant mind rarely before seen, Maigret in Court is a painful story of an oppressive domestic tragedy and the compassionate insight of a remarkable detective.

Nine short stories make up this delightful holiday-themed collection, each featuring Georges Simenon's famous detective, Jules Maigret. Christmas mysteries abound: an otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold; another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him. Many of these stories feature observant and resourceful children, frightened yet resolute, who bring out a paternal streak in the childless Maigret. The rapport between the inspector and these youthful heroes imparts a delightful freshness to this holiday collection- a cornucopia for fans of Maigret and mysteries.

The Penguin Crime and Espionage series offers a curated collection of thrilling narratives that delve into the world of crime and espionage. Each installment features gripping plots, complex characters, and intricate twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats. This series aims to showcase both classic and contemporary works, appealing to fans of suspense and intrigue. With a focus on storytelling that captures the essence of mystery and danger, it promises to be a must-read for enthusiasts of the genre.

Murder Most A Collection of Great Crime Stories

Set in the in the atmospheric and squalid streets of Paris, Maigret sets out to prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. In another one of Maigret's unconventional and audacious plans, he arranges the escape of the condemned man in an attempt to prove his theory. The presumed murderer goes on the run across Paris and its suburbs, dropping misleading clues along the way and leading Maigret into the labyrinthine twists of the mystery. Maigret is in for more than he bargained for, as he encounters rich American expatriates, dangerous foreigners and their hidden motives.

When an ominous note predicting the time and place of a death finds its way to Maigret's desk in Paris, his investigation brings him to Saint-Fiacre, the place of his birth. It isn't long before a darkness descends on Maigret and the town, as the prediction becomes a brutal reality and the Inspector discovers he is not welcome in the place he once called home. As much a thriller as a meditation on alienation, The Saint-Fiacre Affair displays Simenon's unique and searing perspective of the struggles we all are forced to endure.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A tense, unforgettable Inspector Maigret mystery from Georges Simenon “He recalled his travelling companion’s agitated sleep—was it really sleep?—his sighs, and his sobbing. Then the two dangling legs, the patent-leather shoes and hand-knitted socks . . . An insipid face. Glazed eyes. And Maigret was not surprised to see a grey beard eating into his cheeks.” A distressed passenger leaps off a night train and vanishes into the woods. Maigret, on his way to a well-earned break in the Dordogne, is soon plunged into the pursuit of a madman, hiding amongst the seemingly respectable citizens of Bergerac.

Against all expectations Marcel Féron has made a “normal” life in a bucolic French suburb in the Ardennes. But on May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, this timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the “Fate” that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark- haired girl, whose accent is “neither Belgian nor German,” and who “seemed foreign to everything around her.” As the mystery of Anna’s identity is gradually revealed, Marcel leaps from the heights of an exhilarating freedom to the depths of a terrifying responsibility—one that will lead him to a blood-chilling choice. When it first appeared in English in 1964, British novelist and critic Brigid Brophy declared The Train to be “the novel his admirers had been expecting all along from Simenon.” Until The Train, she wrote, the dazzlingly prolific novelist had been “a master without a masterpiece.”

On a stormy evening in the coastal town of Concarneau, Monsieur Mostaguen, a local wine merchant, is shot after leaving the Admiral Hotel. When Inspector Maigret is called in to solve the crime, he finds the townspeople in a state of panic, provoked by inflammatory articles in the press, as one by one prominent citizens of the town are attacked. But what connects the victims? What is Emma, the downtrodden hotel waitress, hiding from Maigret? And what is the significance of the mysterious yellow dog lurking around Concarneau, causing its citizens great unease?

The near fatal shooting of a policeman takes Maigret into the art world-and Madame Maigret helps her husband solve the case.

"It's not because you're foreigners. It's because you aren't foreign enough... or else that you are too foreign. Just as the Krull house sits on the edge of a rural French town, the family occupies a marginal place in the life of the community around them. Snubbed by the locals despite having lived there for decades, they rely on trade with passing sailors to earn a living. When their relative arrives unannounced from Germany, with his unsettling, nonchalant ways, the family becomes the target of increasing suspicion and the scapegoat for a terrible crime. Written on the eve of the Second World War, The Krull House is a taut, strangely prophetic novel about how distrust and hostility towards outsiders descends into hate-filled violence." -- Provided by publisher

Is Carl Andersen innocent of murder, or a very good liar? Detective Chief Inspector Maigret has been interrogating the enigmatic Danish aristocrat for seventeen hours. A diamond merchant was found dead, shot at point-blank range, in the garage of Andersen's mansion, yet he will not confess to the crime. To get to the truth, Maigret must delve into the secrets of Three Widows Crossroads, the isolated neighbourhood where he lives with his mysterious, reclusive sister Else - and where, it seems, everyone has something to hide.

A bus stops on the road to Montlu on, and there two strangers meet- Tati, a steely widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, and Jean, an odd, quiet man with nowhere to go. There is between them an affinity and Jean agrees to lodge with Tati, and help with the farm as he can. In the still and heat of the summer, they labour together and, inevitably, begin their affair. But nothing is at it seems, and as affections strain and stray, their relationship hurtles toward a disturbing doom . . . First published in 1942 at the same time as Albert Camus' The Outsider, this is Simenon's existentialist masterpiece - a powerful exploration of desire and death, of the barbarous edge that encircles the human soul.

Simenon explores the complexity of parent child relationships and the bitterness of things left unsaid in this stark, confessional piece.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a childhood bully reappears in Maigret’s life, he struggles to put aside his own feelings and carry out his duties as an investigator. When Ferdinand Fumal, a wealthy butcher and political influencer, starts receiving anonymous death threats, he fears for his life, and Maigret is ordered to his protection. But upon meeting the man, Maigret realizes that Fumal was among the childhood bullies who tormented him as a boy. Maigret’s instinct is to pawn the job off on another officer—until Fumal turns up the next morning brutally slain that is. Racked with guilt, Maigret finds himself being blamed for the murder, and so must go about the agonizing task of bringing the murdered butcher’s killer to justice.

"Adrift, and troubled by her recent divorce from her bourgeoisie husband, we meet Betty alone in a bar. When she is embraced by an older woman, we learn of Betty's adulterous past. Feigning as a victim of high society exclusion, the truth of Betty is eventually revealed; that of a sinister woman overwrought with jealousy who cannot help but ensnare innocents into her dark webs of deception. Originally published in 1961, this psychological thriller caused a sensation and became an instant classic which inspired a film adaptation of the same title."--Provided by publisher

To be honest, the profession he had always dreamed of did not exist. As a boy in his hometown, he felt that many people were not in their right place or took the wrong path simply because they lacked clarity. He imagined a man of infinite wisdom and insight, both a doctor and a priest, someone who could discern the fate of individuals with a mere glance. This man would be consulted like a physician, a sort of mediator of destinies. Not only because he was intelligent—perhaps he didn't even need exceptional intelligence—but because he could live the lives of others, empathizing with anyone. Maigret had never spoken of this to anyone, nor did he dare to think too seriously about it for fear of feeling ridiculous. Unable to complete his medical studies, he had entered the police force by chance. But was it truly just chance? And aren't police officers sometimes mediators of destinies themselves?

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithCelebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Georges Simenon's brilliant pipe-smoking detective, Jules Maigret, is one of the most beloved literary creations of the twentieth century. In this adventure, an officer from Scotland Yard is studying Maigret's methods when a call from an island off the Cote d'Azure sends the two men off to an isolated community to investigate its eccentric inhabitants.

Hector Loursat, a lawyer in the small town of Moulins, has lived as a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years previously. Unmoored from society and estranged from his daughter, he shuts himself away, numbed by endless bottles of burgundy. But when a dead man is found in his house one night, the resulting police investigation unearths secrets that shake the town - and Loursat's isolation - to the core. No longer able to ignore the world, he emerges to take on the murder case himself and confront the lives of Moulins' by-ways and back streets. In the progressive break-down of Loursat's self-imposed isolation, Simenon brilliantly depicts the psychology of loneliness and a man's tortured re-engagement with humanity and its darkest acts.

On a foggy winter's evening in Dieppe, after the arrival of the daily ferry from England, a railway signalman habitually scrutinizes the port from his tiny, isolated cabin. When a scuffle on the quayside catches his eye, he is drawn to the scene of a brutal murder and his once quiet life changes forever. A mere observer at first, he soon finds himself fishing a briefcase from the water and in doing so he enters a feverish and secret chase. As the murderer and witness stalk and spy on each other, they gain an increasingly profound yet tacit understanding of each other until the witness becomes an accomplice. Written in 1933, soon after the successful launch of the Inspector Maigret novels, this haunting, atmospheric novel soon became a classic and the inspiration for several film and TV adaptations.

“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 A fictional autobiography of Maigret, Georges Simenon’s brilliant detective In this make-believe memoir, Maigret recounts a meeting with the author himself. The account starts with the arrival of Georges Sim, as he is called here, at the Paris Police Judiciaire to soak up atmosphere for his crime novels by dogging the footsteps of Inspector Maigret. The detective is irritated by the audacious young writer who names a character after him and argues that he oversimplifies, in his fiction, the intricate duties of the police investigating a case. Here, Maigret “sets the record straight,” telling readers how he’s different from the invention, and about his courtship and marriage to his beloved Louise. Ingeniously amusing and tender, Maigret’s Memoirs is a look inside the mind of the brilliant Maigret like never before.

Two of Simenon&#39;s Maigret crime stories, which originally appeared in &#34;Maigret&#39;s Christmas&#34;.

Dutch translation of "Maigret a New York"

“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 At a lavish dinner party, Inspector Maigret recounts the tale of an old case that has haunted him for years At one of his friends’ frequent dinner parties, Maigret shares the story of a case from a few years back that haunts him to this day, in which a man named Adrien Josset was found guilty and was executed for the murder of his wife, Christine. Adrien had been a weak-willed, mild-mannered man, but Christine, who was much wealthier than he, had used her connections to land him an influential position in an important career. Maigret had interviewed Adrien only once when the examining magistrate took over the case and successfully moved to have him executed. But though all the clues pointed to Adrien’s guilt, Maigret remained unconvinced, and years later, he still doubts the murderer’s true identity. Maigret’s Secret is a thought-provoking dive into the machinations of justice, and the ways in which they can sweep away an innocent man’s life.

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' When an unusually inquisitive stranger strikes up conversation with Justin Calmar on the train home from a family holiday, his sun-drenched memories are overshadowed by an event that will change his life forever. As he travels alone through northern Italy and Switzerland, his carefully constructed life as an upright citizen begins to unravel, revealing secret motivations and hidden impulses that threaten to overwhelm him. Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the spacious new home he had built in palinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

“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 In Simenon’s iconic first novel featuring Inspector Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces a fraudster’s true identity Inspector Jules Maigret, a taciturn detective and commissaire of the Paris Brigade Criminelle, receives notice from Interpol that a notorious conman known only as Peitr the Latvian is en route to France. Armed with a broad description and a scant few clues, Maigret plans to intercept him at the train station outside Paris. But when he arrives, he finds that there are several suspects—some living, and some dead—who meet the description uncannily well. Who is Pietr the Latvian, truly? A vagrant, a seaman, a businessman, a corpse? Russian, Norwegian, American or Latvian? In Pietr the Latvian, the iconic first novel of Simenon’s classic series that made Inspector Maigret a legendary figure in the annals of detective fiction, Maigret must use his every instinct to unravel the mystery and track down the truth.

A recently divorced actor and a no less lonely woman meet by chance in a New York diner. The city - its bars, its cheap motels and its rented rooms - becomes the cinematic setting of the couple's escalating and mysterious relationship. A move against desperation and drift, their affair nevertheless glows with an urgent and compulsive romance. Georges Simenon was one of the most popular twentieth-century novelists. Three Bedrooms in Manhattan - closely based on the story of his own meeting with his second wife - is his most passionate and revealing work.