Customer Reviews

Lock 14 (Inspector Maigret Mysteries)

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Acclaimed author, Georges Simenon, once again weaves a capturing tale of mystery and suspense, with the astute Inspector Maigret at the wheel. A series numbering over 100 books, the Inspector Maigret series - after a long stint of unavailability - has, thankfully, been reintroduced by Penguin Books to readers hankering for good mysteries. With an intriguing plot and a cast of believable characters, Lock 14, set early on in the Maigret series), is a swift but gratifying read.

Brusquer and less loquacious than Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Inspector Maigret is all business as he takes on a new case that is sure to perplex even the most skilled of sleuths.

Set in France, in the region of a lock located on a busy section of canal, Lock 14, recounts the underhanded goings-on along these extensive waterways. With commercial barge interchange in the lock, coupled with high-class yachts and tourist boats, which were often gathered in close proximity, the result was an aquatic melding pot of working class and "upper crust" societies.

The varying degrees of society in the vicinity of Lock 14 have apparently collided, on a rainy April day, when two dockmen stumble upon the cadaver of elegantly-clad Mary Lampson while rummaging under the hay in a stable; 5 hours dead from apparent strangulation. Inspector Maigret is called to piece things together. First to be interviewed is the dead woman's husband, Sir Walter Lampson, an Englishman and retired colonel of the Indian Army, whose pleasure craft is docked near Lock 14. The Inspectors sharp instincts are alerted when Lampson, along with fellow passengers of his yacht - who seem only bent on a life devoted to decadence - appear oddly aloof and indifferent to the murder. Ultimately shedding light on a heartrending occurrence of lost identity and lost love, Maigret gradually pieces together the stories of those involved, and how Mary Lampson and a second victim met their untimely end.

Regardless of the descriptive language outlining the characters, conspicuous is the lack of background on Inspector Maigret himself. Simenon leaves the reader guessing about the Inspectors persona, and the depths that lie beneath his somewhat gruff and abrupt exterior.

Despite their small size, Simenon's Inspector Maigret series of mystery books are highly satisfying and concentrated with page flipping "who-dunnit" suspense, keeping readers captured until the final pages. Lock 14, itself, saw publication in 1931 and yet remains accessible and a pleasure to read. These are excellent books that are small and easy to pack for a weekend getaway or outing, and can be easily enjoyed in a few brief sittings.

Georges Simenon is the author of over 100 Inspect Maigret mystery stories. They were immensely popular in the 1930s through the 1960s but seem to have fallen out of view in the last few decades. Penguin Books has begun to reissue some of those mysteries. They are all fun books to read and Simenon's "Lock 14" is no exception.

Originally published in 1931, Lock 14 is set in a canal in France at a time when commercial barge traffic was a primary means of transporting cargo. The canals were filled with a mix of commercial and tourist traffic which effectively created a mix of upper and working class personalities. Lock 14 begins, as most such mysteries do, with a dead body. A young woman is found dead in a pile of muck, murdered in a stable near Lock 14. She was from a party of seemingly wealthy tourists leading a `debauched' life on the river. Inspector Maigret is called to the scene. He must sort through the muck and find the killer. There are many suspects and more murders soon follow. The rest of the book is devoted to Maigret's attempt to sort out the facts from fiction and find the killer. To reveal any more would spoil the plot.

Simenon's Inspector Maigret mysteries are often compared to Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries. There are many resemblances to be sure. Both follow typical `plot guidelines' for detective stories; they involve numerous suspects and a conflict between the intelligent observations of the hero and the less astute detective work of the local constabulary. There are some major differences however worth noting. The chief differences seem to me to be Simenon's darker touch and his more diverse selection of `characters'. Whereas Christie's stories most often involved an upper crusty cast of characters, Simenon's characters often come from more inauspicious backgrounds. I also think that Simenon is earthier than Christie (and others). The passengers on the tourist barge were decadent and living a pretty wild existence. The working men and women on the canal and in the towns along the canal are well drawn, rough edges and all. This was a nice change from the parlor room type mystery where everyone speaks with a sophisticated accent of some sort.

Finally, for me, the centerpiece of any detective story of this type is the character of the detective. In the case of Maigret, the more I read of him (three Maigret stories to date) the more I enjoy his character. All in all I found Simenon's Lock 14 to be an enjoyable detective/mystery story. It was a fast-paced well written story with believable characters. Recommended. L. Fleisig

This, my second foray into the works of Simenon, yielded the same satisfying read as the first. Written when Simenon was 28 years old, "Lock 14" sketches shady doings and murder along the extensive barge system in France, where dozens of ships of all sizes and shades pass all day and much of the night in all kinds of weather. What impresses me so much here is Simenon's skillful writing which, with precise strokes, draws exact pictures of scene after interesting scene. All the senses are tapped to give the reader a feeling of the atmosphere, while standing outside the action is Inspector Maigret, absorbing each bit of information into his keen and ever-active mind.
The story line is clever. I had no idea what to make of the first elegant body found in a filthy stable under a bundle of straw. And, in 1931 when this work was written, Simenon did not spare us a host of self-indulgent and jaded characters whose pursuit of pleasure was their main preoccupation. Simenon seems to have an existentialist's outlook. He takes what life gives him and, without judgment, returns it to us as the state of how things are. Here he is on women, "Charming creatures, whose first impulse is always good...They are full of good intentions...The trouble is that life, with its acts of cowardice, its compromises, its insistent needs, is stronger...." I think this is how he felt about all of us.

"Lock 14" was originally published in France as "Le Charretier de `La Providence'", then it was translated in by Robert Baldick in 1963 and printed in English as "Maigret Meets A Milord"; there were a few revisions over the years and there was a title change to "Murder At Lock 14", and then the change to the present title in 2003.

This is the second in the long series (seventy-five!) of Maigret novels that Simenon wrote, see [...] for a complete list of them, and the first that I have ever read, so I don't know how it stacks up to the later ones. In "Lock 14" there is a body found strangled in the stables near the locks of Marne, and Inspector Maigret from the Flying Squad is sent for. He finds that the body is that of Mary Lampoon, one of the passengers from the party boat "Providence".

The trouble is that nobody on the boat seems terrible concerned over her death, getting anybody to cooperate is like pulling teeth, and she may have ties to somebody that lives at the locks.

Simenon's story is clever, and labyrinthine, and there are plenty of red herrings. The problem, for me, is that the story has a meandering sense to it, and Maigret is so taciturn and bluff, that he almost seems to be walking about in a semi-coma. In "Lock 14" Maigret has no personality, and ends up being just a dull character; while on the other hand, "Lock 14" has a fascinating background as we see how the French locks of the pre-WWII thirties worked.

While this novel has seen many editions, I was attracted to this book, besides the price, it was on sale, was two things. First of all, I had heard a lot of Maigret and Simenon over the years, and this was my chance to sample a very early example of his novel writing. The second is the book itself. It is a very attractive digest sized paperback with a stark black and white photo on the cover, with the photo laid over an equally stark art deco design. I've since seen others in this reissue series and they all look similar and would look nice on your shelf. An entertaining and clever mystery despite a rather dull and restrained leading man.

It was the first Georges Simenon book I have read. French friends of mine had been telling me that I had to try some of his mysteries, so I randomly picked this one. It was a great read. Very engaging, a good story that was not predictable, and the detective, Maigret, was a very believable detective, with good old fashion sleuthing skills. It is a short book, and a really nice one to curl up with a snowy or rainy afternoon.

In this atmospheric novel, Simenon immerses us in canal life, a curiously fluid realm where it's almost always raining, and the inhabitants soak themselves besides in wine, beer and hot toddies at all hours of the day and night.

Maigret is adrift in a world he knows nothing about. He knocks down a few beers himself to get acclimatized.

Corpses appear in unlikely places, and there are never any witnesses. Clues abound, but are they fishy? A yacht full of dissipated foreigners holds out the promise of some suspects, yet the vacillating Chief Inspector feels obliged to look longer and deeper.

This is an excellent Maigret, with an ultimately likeable cast of sots and sinners.

"Lock 14" is, like most Maigret mysteries, very enjoyable. The flaw is, this book was previously published under the title "Maigret Meets a Milord," which I already had. Of the 75 Simenon books I own, this is the first time I've encountered this problem, so I can't complain too loudly. I only hope publishers will try to be consistent with titles, that's all.

This is one of the earliest entries in Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret series of mysteries. It was originally published in 1931 under the French title of Le Charretier de "La Providence." At Lock 14 in Dizy, near where the river Marne meets the canal of the same name, the body of a strangled woman is found lying amidst the straw on the floor of a stable. From her stylish dress she's obviously a woman of some means, more at home in the fashionable milieu of Parisian society. What could have brought her to this obscure corner of the countryside, to end her days amongst the boatmen, the carters, and their horses? That's what Maigret aims to find out. To do so he spends much of the book traveling up and down the canal line, chasing after barges, tugs, and yachts, to question the nomadic inhabitants of these vessels. At one point he even rides forty miles on a bicycle, presumably attired in suit, overcoat, and hat.

In many ways Maigret is the antithesis of the many literary detectives modeled after Sherlock Holmes. While the appeal of the Holmes mysteries relies heavily on the personality quirks of the hero, Maigret is almost an absolute cipher by comparison. Simenon gives us almost no description of his star detective whatsoever, other than he carries a pipe and likes to drink. The supporting characters are drawn much more vividly. Maigret doesn't so much as investigate his suspects as act as their confessor. He relentlessly dogs the wayfarers of this aquatic crossroads until they eventually spill their guts to him. While most mystery authors write about murder like it's a mathematical game or a jigsaw puzzle, Simenon treats crime as a shocking event that affects people's lives. The psychological dimensions of the characters are far more important than the mental gymnastics required to solve the case. The ending of Lock 14 exudes a tragic pathos that transcends the typical emotional limitations of the mystery genre. By adding this psychological depth, Simenon brings the murder mystery out of the realm of escapist entertainment and into the scope of realist literature.

The setting of the book also resonates with a keen ring of truth. Simenon paints a vivid portrait of life along the canal. At the time the story takes place, some of the boats were motorized, but most of the barges were still pulled by horses walking along a towpath. At each stop, the boat pilots might have to park for days while waiting for their turn to traverse the lock. The local tavern becomes the center of their existence for the duration. The carters care for their horses, upon whom their livelihoods depend, with an almost brotherly devotion. The reader becomes immersed in the working and social lives of these laborers. For the American reader, it's an unglamorized view of French life that the typical tourist would never experience. Simenon was an incredibly prolific author, and though I've only read a few of his works so far, I suspect that if one reads enough of his work one would find depicted the daily life of every region, every class, every walk of life in France. In that sense he's like the Balzac of the early 20th century. The plot of Lock 14 may not be intricate enough to satisfy the most zealous mystery enthusiasts, but anyone interested in France and its literature will find the reading of this brief book well worth the time spent.