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Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses

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Never has Maigret experienced an atmosphere like this: an old family mansion oozing decay and morose family members out of sight in their rooms, claiming to know nothing.

The elder son of the household, Léonard Lachaume, has been shot dead in the house. He was the present head of the family business, Lachaume's Biscuits, established in 1817. Maigret remembers these biscuits from his childhood, with their faint aftertaste of cardboard.

The family does not even seem to be mourning, although their venerable old business is on the verge of collapse, and its chief executive dead.

Maigret does not believe in the burglary suggested by the family.

While Maigret sniffs out the passions beneath the family facade, he is closely "supervised" by a new examining magistrate, a young man fresh out of college who considers it his job to conduct the investigation. With hardly a minute to himself for a pipe or a hot toddy, poor Maigret must collect his facts and suggestive details almost surreptitiously.

The season is always significant with Simenon. This case begins on a beastly wet November morning, two years before Maigret is scheduled to retire. Time is growing short, and a new generation of crime specialists is on the rise. But the reader can rest assured that that Maigret's nebulous methods will never be surpassed.

I rank this book quite high among Maigret mysteries.

Simenon was so prolific a writer that it can be hard to separate one Maigret story from another. He is reputed to have nearly all of them at one go. There is a sameness to them, but that is a good thing. The stories are as reliable as Maigret himself.

Chief Inspector Maigret solves crimes by real police work, investigation, and psychological understanding. He relies on his assistants Lucas, Janvier, and Lapointe to find the answers to his inquiries [albeit most of their work is done off stage (or off page as it were)]. He probes the key witnesses with his sometimes seemingly odd questions. And then at the correct moment he faces the criminal and allows them to confirm their guilt to him. If he can keep the examining magistrate out of the way, that is.

Most of his criminals are not particularly evil, just flawed people (like most people) who chose to act wrongly. And most of the victims are not particularly morally elevated. Maigret understands the world is not widely populated with saints and devils. This understanding allows him to be psychologically comfortable in widely differing social settings. And Maigret himself is not without flaws. He is no blooming optimist and is rarely to be found without some cloud hanging over him.

In this edition, Maigret's retirement is within sight. He feels nearly used up and passed by. In particular, he has to deal with a young and aggressive chief magistrate, a man from a new more refined and educated generation. A man from an old and formerly wealthy family is murdered by a burglar. Or is he? The family biscuit-making business is in a downward spiral, which is fitting because pretty much the whole family is crackers. Who would bother to kill one of them? And why?

An old family firm is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy; the surviving family members live in bizarre poverty within the crumbling premises - and inexplicably there is a murder. Into a half-lit world of genteel despair stumbles Chief Inspector Maigret. Harassed by a vindictive lawyer, uncomfortable under the supercilious eye of a you examining magistrate, the inspector struggles to launch an investigation. Nothing, it seems, can penetrate the family's wall of silence - until Maigret learns of a black sheep, a banished daughter who is a hostess in a notorious club where women dress as men. The investigation drives the inspector through a façade of respectability and into the dark interior of criminal degeneracy. Families are by nature secretive; Maigret finds out why.

These Maigret stories are full cast productions by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from the mid-1970's. Dramatized by Frederick Spoerly, " Maigret and the Reluctant Witness" also includes "Maigret Hesitates" and "Maigret in Society." Fans of Georges Simenon's Chief Inspector Maigret can join Maigret aided by Sgt. Lukor and Inspector LaPlant as he conducts his investigation. Enjoyable listening from a world famous mystery writer.