Customer Reviews

Maigret's Rival

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The re-writing of titles by editors is a crime that victimizes the readers of popular mystery writers. I read and reviewed this book under the title of Inspector Cadaver. I'm reviewing the same book again to help protect other readers from buying the same book twice.

Maigret stirs up all sorts of tension in the town of Saint-Aubin by investigating a murder there as a favor to an examining magistrate. In truth, although he's treated with great hospitality, some people wish he'd go home.

Also on the scene is an ex-policeman turned private detective, nicknamed in the old days Inspector Cadaver. His shifty presence complicates matters even more.

The fact that Maigret is out of his jurisdiction makes him more dependent than ever on his uncanny ability to read people and places. The quirky characters in this story give him plenty of material to work with.

I suggest checking the reviews of Inspector Cadaver before getting this book. That edition is nicer, in any case, than this one.

Georges Simenon was a prolific writer, completing on average four books a year. Many of them, 78 to be exact, were detective novels featuring Inspector Maigret of the Paris police department. After reading "Maigret's Rival," I must assume he was under contract to submit so many a year, and this one must have been close to a publisher's imposed deadline. It seems like a rush job from start to finish. Maigret is sent by his supervisor to the small rural community of Saint-Aubin to unofficially look into the death of a young man, which may or may not have been murder. Once there, Maigret discovers a former detective rival of his, one Inspector Cavre, nicknamed Cadaver, is also on the case. Why and who hired him? That's about as mysterious as this mystery gets. There is none of the smart inquisitions or clever detective work so often found in other Maigret novels. It's just so much page filler where nothing is resolved and the action goes nowhere. It's pablum for the mind. If I had read this Maigret book first, I never would have read another and would have missed out on some fine mysteries. Skip it.