Series
Publication
Le Livre de Poche (2008), 160 p.
Original publication date
1960
Collections
Genres
Description
Maigret is called to the home of Armand de Saint-Hilaire, a highly respected official who has been found shot dead in his study by his housekeeper. After interviewing everyone concerned Maigret is at a loss to the identity of the perpetrator until he comes across a series of letters from the past fifty years between the victim and a recently widowed woman. As Maigret uncovers the details behind the two's relationship he gets closer to discovering the tragic truth behind the official's demise.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
An exquisite little novel featuring the ineffable Chief Inspector Maigret.
It opens with Maigret being summoned to meet an official in the Quai d'Orsay, headquarters of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There he is briefed by a pushy young official who introduces him to the dour old
It transpires that the housekeeper had looked after the ambassador for several decades, and had presided over his household with a watchful eye. Though obviously devastated by the death of her employer she seems strangely taciturn, and Maigret struggles to get a cogent word out of her.
Further inspection of the ambassador's home reveal literally thousands of letters from a woman with whom he had been in love for more than fifty years. They had met as teenagers but, as she came from a very prominent family ("with relatives in every court in Europe"), they had been separated when she was forced into an arranged marriage to consolidate her family's position. They had continued to correspond throughout the rest of their separate lives. By a great coincidence it turns out that her husband, to whom she had always remained faithful, had himself died in an accident over the previous weekend, potentially leaving the widow and the ambassador free to marry after the passage of a suitable period of formal mourning.
Against this context Maigret struggles to find any slight fingerhold to enable him to get a grip on the investigation, using his customary clarity of thought and profound understanding of the human condition. The denouement is surprising, yet also wholly plausible and satisfying.
And all this in just 130 pages!
It opens with Maigret being summoned to meet an official in the Quai d'Orsay, headquarters of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There he is briefed by a pushy young official who introduces him to the dour old
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housekeeper of a former ambassador. That morning she had discovered the dead body of her employer, apparently shot four times in what seemed to be a classic "locked room" mystery.,It transpires that the housekeeper had looked after the ambassador for several decades, and had presided over his household with a watchful eye. Though obviously devastated by the death of her employer she seems strangely taciturn, and Maigret struggles to get a cogent word out of her.
Further inspection of the ambassador's home reveal literally thousands of letters from a woman with whom he had been in love for more than fifty years. They had met as teenagers but, as she came from a very prominent family ("with relatives in every court in Europe"), they had been separated when she was forced into an arranged marriage to consolidate her family's position. They had continued to correspond throughout the rest of their separate lives. By a great coincidence it turns out that her husband, to whom she had always remained faithful, had himself died in an accident over the previous weekend, potentially leaving the widow and the ambassador free to marry after the passage of a suitable period of formal mourning.
Against this context Maigret struggles to find any slight fingerhold to enable him to get a grip on the investigation, using his customary clarity of thought and profound understanding of the human condition. The denouement is surprising, yet also wholly plausible and satisfying.
And all this in just 130 pages!
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LibraryThing member John_Steenwinkel
An excellent thriller where no one is a likely subject, where the victim does not seem to have enemies and everyone involved is of a high social class, still living in the glorious past.
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
Always so well written. The real mystery here is how Simenon wrote so well so quickly
Language
Original language
French
ISBN
9782253125204
Physical description
160 p.; 6.9 inches
Pages
160