Customer Reviews

Maigret and the Headless Corpse

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're curious about Simenon's unique style and his great character Maigret, this is the one to start with. More than any of the other 50 Maigrets I've read, this one epitomizes the qualities that make these books so remarkable; Maigret solves crimes, like this one, not so much by the regular procedure of detection, but by trying to understand the circumstances of the crime and the lives of the people involved. In this book, the crime becomes almost irrelevant compared to the study of character and human unhappiness.

I see two reviews here, and they're completely opposite each other! I read this book, my first and only Maigret, and I thought I was enjoying it, but correct me if I misread -- didn't the solution to the crime pop up in the final pages in the form of someone we hadn't even known existed?! That threw me completely. I read it again a few years later and could have sworn the same thing happened (that I hadn't missed a clue earlier in the book). I want to like the Maigret books, but are they all like that?

I've been avoiding buying this book because of the grisly images conjured up by the title. But I finally succumbed - and was rewarded with a delightful Maigret.

Something gets caught in the propeller of a barge in the St. Martin Canal. The bargemen fish up a human arm with a boat hook. After that, the police recover all the body parts except the head. The absence of the head makes identification very difficult.

While seeking refreshment in the neighborhood of the murder, Maigret happens to visit a bar where the proprietor is suspiciously absent. Aline Calas has no idea when her husband will return: "He never tells me anything." Maigret is fascinated by the listless, taciturn Madame Calas, who drinks steadily and sleeps with any man who asks, and not even for money.

Maigret's compulsion to understand character drives his circuitous investigation.

Throughout the story, the fresh and luminous spring weather contrasts with gloomy drinking dens, the odorous waters of the canal and the stench of the neatly packaged body parts.

Simenon is at his casual best in this book. The subtle humor and seductive cadence of the dialog is a treat, as is the rather offhand unfolding of plot and motive.

This is one of my least favorite Maigret novels; the characterizations are peculiarly inept here, and the plot is just plain silly. There are far better Maigret books though, just don't start with this one!