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Maigret's Boyhood Friend (Harvest/HBJ Book)

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There is a definite reason why a French language novel written in 1968 by a Belgian crime writer was translated into English and reissued in 2004. Simply, "Maigret's Boyhood Friend" is a tour de force.

Georges Simenon is the master of the psychological police procedural. His hero, Jules Maigret is the rumpled middle aged Chief of the Paris Criminal Investigation Section. He solves his crimes because he has deep understanding human nature and the psychic abberations that can lead to murder. The pleasure of a good Maigret story is to watch him through the use of skillful interrogations and crime scene investigation solve complex mysteries.

In this story, Jules Maigret's boyhood friend whom he has not seen in 20 years comes to ask for help. The former class clown, is now the kept man of a kept woman. She is murdered and he is afraid that he will be arrested. The suspects include the Maigret's boyhood friend and the dead woman's four lovers. To solve this mystery, Maigret must win a psychological battle with an imposing building concierge who is refusing to tell him what she knows. Classic Maigret material.

An old school friend of Maigret's appears in his office. Léon Florentin was the class clown. He's still making faces, but at fifty-four years old it's not so amusing anymore. Especially since he has just come from the apartment of his murdered mistress.

In addition to Florentin, Josée had four lovers, none aware of the others. Only Florentin had a key to the apartment and an overview of the goings-on.

When one of the lovers shows up unannounced one afternoon, Florentin hides in a closet. He hears a shot, eventually comes out of hiding, and finds his mistress dead. Anyway, that's his story. But he always was a liar.

As Maigret interviews the lovers, he gets acquainted with the victim: a kind, warmhearted woman with a well-bred air, above all a discreet woman who would happily listen to a man's troubles for hours. She was also a gifted liar.

How to get at the truth? The concierge, a vast mountain of flesh with expressionless eyes, must know something. But she won't tell.

Simenon's wry descriptions of the wily Florentin, the frightened lovers, the grim concierge, and the victim's well-organized and lucrative domestic arrangements all conspire to make this an excellent Maigret.

Florentin had been at school with Maigret. His friend Josee died the afternoon he arrived at Maigret's office. She had been shot. Her murder did not cause a stir in the neighborhood. Florentin took her money after her death. He claimed that she had not been close to her sister, (her family).

Maigret finds having to deal with a former schoolfellow a wretched business. It turns out that the woman had had four lovers and for the most part they did not know about each other. Maigret obtains a warrant to search the place of the concierge. The quarters of the woman are mean and close and Maigret almost feels ashamed of himself for pursuing his offical duties.

The old school friend had tried blackmail. Maigret considers that literally thousands of people lived in Paris subsisting on the borderline of crime. It is discovered that the actions of Florentin set off a chain reaction of events. The puzzle is intricate. Simenon's tale, here, is quite good.