Maigret and the Loner [Hardcover]

Georges Simenon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (June 10, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891904298
• ISBN-13: 978-0891904298
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,173,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Maigret's last and most complex investigations, July 5, 2005

By 

Stephen O. Murray "Stephen O. Murray" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maigret and the Loner (Paperback)

One of the last of about 400 novels by Georges Simenon, "Maigret et l'homme tout seul" (published in 1971, set in 1965) is one of the more complicated Chief Inspector Maigret cases. The body of fastidiously coiffured man who has been shot is found amidst a vast accumulation of junk in a house slated for demolition one muggy Paris summer day. There are no clues about who the dead man is, so before trying to find out who killed him and why, Maigret must first figure out who he was and how he came to be where he was shot.

There is a very bitter wife (a recurrent figure in Simenon fiction, especially "The Cat") and some long-ago passions, and a long-ago (just after WWII) unsolved murder case that Maigret reopens in his quest to understand why (as much or more than who) killed the derelict. The investigation involves Maigret going to the Mediterranean coast in a quite humorous sortie. As usual, he eats well, though he was curbing his intake of beer on his physician's orders in this top-notch police procedural novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A crime suggestive of past sufferings, May 18, 2009

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maigret and the Loner (Hardcover)

I bought this book used from Amazon, and inside it was stamped, "Discarded from the Public Library of..." Amazing to me that anyone would part with it. I at least will keep Maigret and the Loner in my permanent collection.

Maigret tries to moderate his drinking in the course of the narrative, but he cannot moderate his sadness at the misery people make for themselves.

The story is set in August, when half the inspectors at the Quai des Orfèvres are on holiday. Crime is rare in this dead season; nonetheless a corpse turns up.

A vagrant living in an abandoned building has been shot to death in his bed. Although dressed in rags, he's very clean and beautifully groomed - a fine physical specimen with the noble head of an Old Testament patriarch. Maigret is intrigued, as he often is by mysterious vagrants who've given up on the world. The victim's beautifully trimmed beard gives Maigret his only lead.

In other books Maigret often announces, "I never think." But in this story Maigret's imaginative intellect gives him little rest. His perplexities are very visible to Madame Maigret. She cooks his favorite dishes, and he hardly knows what he's eating.

Maigret's journey to the truth is a series of quirky hunches, lucky breaks and impulsive researches.

A thoroughly enjoyable mystery, strangely enhanced by the muggy Paris weather.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Maigret's Best Cases, November 26, 2009

By 

Joe Richards (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maigret and the Loner (Hardcover)

This is really one of the best Maigret books. Our hero must solve the nearly unsolvable, the murder of an unknown tramp. Once his name was known, Maigret had to go back 20 years to an unsolved case and find the needed clues. Going back two decades finally led Maigret to the surprising solution of the tramp's murder and the older case at the same time. I don't want to give away too much for those that aren't familiar with the story and I'll leave it there.

[...]

At any rate, if you're a Maigret fan, don't miss this book. The same if you love good police investigations as this murder within a murder is one of the best.