The Friend of Madame Maigret (Inspector Maigret Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Georges Simenon (Author), Helen Sebba (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2007

In The Friend of Madame Maigret, Simenon's economic prose brilliantly portrays the Marais quarter of Paris and those who haunt its narrow streets as Inspector Maigret attempts to prove that a murder has actually been committed without a corpse anywhere to be found. As the investigation becomes increasingly complex, seemingly unconnected characters are drawn into the case, and Maigret begins to wonder if his wife's earlier strange encounter with a woman and her baby may be the missing link.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals. (People)

Simenon remains an incredibly expert, dry, and inventive storyteller; the spell is infallible. (V. S. Pritchett)

Simenon created one of the great moral detectives . . . a master of the slow unfolding of the criminal mind. (John Mortimer)

A truly wonderful writer, marvelously readable-lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with that world he creates. (Muriel Spark)

A writer who, more than any other crime novelist, combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal. (P. D. James)

About the Author

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) is one of the most widely read and published novelists of all time. He wrote more than two hundred books under his own name-including seventy-five Maigret novels-and more than two hundred under a series of pseudonyms.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143038931
• ISBN-13: 978-0143038931
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars beware of duplication, August 17, 2007

By 

William H. Abbott "reader" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Friend of Madame Maigret (Inspector Maigret Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The book is good, but it was published years ago as "Madame Maigret's Own Case." So beware of duplication.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jules Gets Help From Madame, July 31, 2010

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Friend of Madame Maigret (Inspector Maigret Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you don't know Maigret and you like detective stories, then you are in for a treat - or about 76 treats because that's how many Maigret novels the prolific Georges Simenon published. (I take this number from an excellent essay in the Times Literary Supplement about Simenon by Paul Theroux called "Georges Simenon, the existential hack". The essay is available online.) As with many of the Maigret stories, this one is also published under another name, Madame Maigret's Own Case. Most, if not all, of the books in this new series were previously published under a different title.

Maigret is a seasoned French chief inspector of detectives with an eye for human foibles and a distinct humanism about his policing. Some lists include this title as one of the best of Maigret. Personally, I haven't found much to choose between them - as long as they are primarily set in Paris. Don't be put off by the title (either title). Madame Maigret's role, while key, is also collateral. She provides some crucial information, but Jules really does the work along with his crew of Lucas, Janvier and a very young La Pointe.

Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The human noir comedy, March 30, 2010

By 

David Van Elslande (Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Friend of Madame Maigret (Inspector Maigret Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The book - like many others - contains everything which was promised in Simenon's biography by Assouline: a short crime novel more focused on the power of human instinct than on the crime itself, on the grey monotony of life than on a complex plot (easily untangled), on the quiet disappointment of human nature than on any unexpected deception. Closer to Dostoievsky than A.Conan Doyle, probably because Simenon wrote crime novels where - in the end - the crime didn't matter as much as the reasons for it.