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Maigret dismantles an intricate network of lies stretching from Paris to Nice in book twenty-three of the new Penguin Maigret series. A small, thin man, rather dull to look at, neither young nor old, exuding the stale smell of a bachelor who does not look after himself. He pulls his fingers and cracks his knuckles and tells his tale the way a schoolboy recites his lesson. A mysterious note predicting the murder of a fortune-teller; a confused old man locked in a Paris apartment; a financier who goes fishing; a South American heiress ... Maigret must make his way through a frustrating maze of clues, suspects and motives to find out what connects them. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in previous translations as To Any Lengths and Maigret and the Fortuneteller. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent %%%Maigret dismantles an intricate network of lies stretching from Paris to Nice in book twenty-three of the new Penguin Maigret series. A small, thin man, rather dull to look at, neither young nor old, exuding the stale smell of a bachelor who does not look after himself. He pulls his fingers and cracks his knuckles and tells his tale the way a schoolboy recites his lesson. A mysterious note predicting the murder of a fortune-teller; a confused old man locked in a Paris apartment; a financier who goes fishing; a South American heiress ... Maigret must make his way through a frustrating maze of clues, suspects and motives to find out what connects them. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in previous translations as To Any Lengths and Maigret and the Fortuneteller. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent… (more)
User reviews
The fortuneteller is indeed
When Maigret and the Police arrive, they find a "simple" man locked in her kitchen and as the story unwinds Maigret looks to find his relationship to the dead woman.....
There are many ins & outs to this story, many seemingly innocuous, but all related in one form or another....
Although the story moved slowly, I read the book rather quickly as I was in need of entertainment.
Maigret really gives no clues or connections until the end... He slow & deliberate, but the reader never really knows what he is thinking...
I would have liked a bit more excitement as this seemed to drag a bit, when dealing with the "simple" man's family.
This is a satisfyingly complex Maigret, in which a whole web of different misdeeds comes together in the one central crime, and almost everyone in the cast is guilty of something. And it must have been a nice bit of escapism for Simenon's wartime readers, with no mention of the occupation, of course, and idyllic angling and boating scenes set in a country inn on the Seine. Very nice.
(*)Try explaining to a millennial why anyone would need a blotter in a café: there are layers upon layers of technological and social change packed into that simple detail!