by Lowell Kempf

Humble Bundle recently offered a bundle of select Maigret novels, a series I had never heard of. And that ended up being a fascinating rabbit hole for me to go down.

George Simenon wrote 75 novels and 28 short stories about Detective Chief Superintendent Jules Maigret between 1931 and 1972. The series is considered to be one of the first, if not the first, police procedurals. The series has been the subject of theater, movies and more tv shows in more languages than I can easily figure out.

Basically, Maigret is a big deal. And I had somehow never heard of the series.

Honestly, it’s because it wasn’t originally written in English. (It is popular in the UK, though) It’s like The Invention of Morel all over again for me. I find literature that is important and worth reading that my American provincialism kept me ignorant of.

Anyhow, I found several volumes at the library so Humble Bundle didn’t get my money this time.

I decided to test the waters by reading Maigret and His Dead Man, which I read was a good way to try the series.

Published in 1948, Maigret and His Dead Man is around the middle of the series (All the mysteries are standalone so no big deal) and is supposed to be a strong example of the procedural element of the story.

I am not going to bother with spoilers because you already know someone commits a murder and Maigret figures out what’s going on.

Short version: it’s good stuff.

Maigret is not a genius who basically serves as a one man police department. Instead, he is a dedicated professional, an important cog in the overall machinery of the police department. He actively works with his colleagues, and they are an important part of the investigations.

Someone once told me that, in one of the Colombo Taco movies, someone asks Colombo if he isn’t at a disadvantage if he is dealing with a murderer who is a genius. Colombo response, no, because the genius is still an amateur and Colombo is a professional who’s been dealing with murders for years. That quote came back to me as I read this book.

Maigret is not a genius like Sherlock Holmes or a wise guy like Sam Spade. He’s empathic, thoughtful and values his colleagues. He is profoundly human and engaging.

At some point, I want to read some of the earlier books. The book I read felt very developed and completely apart from genres like the hard boiled detective or the cozy mystery. I am very curious to see how the series started out.

And, while I am not planning on doing an exhaustive read of the series, I do want to keep on reading.

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by 88ambush53

$5.00 for Issue: Best of Dragon Magazine Vol. IV
Condition: Like New
Location: Switzerland

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