Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29505 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-29
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
Maigret is going about his work in rainy Paris, followed around by Inspector Pyke who has come from Scotland Yard to study the famous French detective's methods. Routine is disturbed when Maigret receives a telephone call from the island of Porquerolles off the Mediterranean coast. A small-time crook has been murdered, the night after he had fervently declared his friendship with Maigret in front of a large group of the island's inhabitants. Maigret and Inspector Pyke leave the greyness of Paris for the sunshine of Porquerolles, where Simenon creates a wonderfully evocative atmosphere of the square and cafe, the brilliant sea, the humidity in the air, and the life and individuality of each of the inhabitants on the small island.

Customer Reviews

Routine
This is a fairly routine police procedural. The descriptions of the Mediterranean island are good, but too many characters are introduced, so that it is difficult to become really interested in any of them. There are no plot twists before the end, so that too much of the book is taken up by the routine of investigation. Maigret is accompanied by an English police officer who is studying French methods, but this does little to enliven the proceedings. Apparently connoisseurs of Maigret prefer the earliest works, published during the 1930s; this one was first published in 1949.