| Title | : | The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien (Maigret, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0141393459 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780141393452 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1931 |
On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself.
Collect this and other novels in the Inspector Maigret series, now available in thrilling new English translations.
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien (Maigret, #4) Reviews
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When is a crime not a crime ? When it’s “The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien”
This was Maigret at his most vulnerable but also at his best.
I read my first ever Maigret last year, and my second, and they both made it into my favourite books of 2018. I can tell you now that this book, will be on my list for 2019, without a doubt.
Maigret is drawn into this affair purely by chance and then becomes so enmeshed he has to see it through to the very end. It takes place in France, Belgium and Germany as he tries to discover the story behind the mystery, and to truly understand why a man shot himself after loosing an old suit.
The writing is, as ever, atmospheric and just so typically French, I think I mentioned in one of my status updates I could even smell the Gauloises aroma wafting from the page. The story is neatly woven and just pulls you in until you feel you are there alongside the enigmatic Maigret.
I had books 3 to 6 for Christmas so I shall unfortunately be rationing myself through the year, but if previous books are anything to go by, expect to see at least a couple of Maigrets in my 2019 favourites.
( GR is saying this is number 4 in the series but The Maigret website says it’s number 3, so I read it 3rd) -
Maigret's chief talent doesn't seem to be genius, or method, or physical strength, or even hard work - rather, he's simply interested in people, and why they behave the way they do. ~ novelist Scott Bradfield
Detective Chief Inspector Maigret's curiosity about the peculiar behavior of a shabbily-dressed, middle-aged man waiting in the Gare de Neuschanz train station in 1930 Netherlands leads to a tragic suicide, for which Maigret correctly fears he is at least partly responsible. His sense of guilt draws him into a journey through Germany, France, and Belgium, as he looks into the life of the dead man and races against a statute of limitations for a crime committed deep in the past.
This fascinating study of the corrosive effect of guilt is based on the suicide of a friend of author Georges Simenon in his youth in Liege, Belgium, and is among the earliest of his Maigret novels.
I found it gripping and look forward to reading many more of Simenon's works.
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien -
This book surprised me. It's a classic of detective fiction, which means that after about 120 pages of classic detective work on the part of Chief Inspector Maigret, I could barely keep my eyelids up! Bored - yes, immensely - and yet, I am so completely onboard with Simenon's agenda, or perhaps with a particular theme in the several of this book. The theme that completely caught my sympathy was Maigret's eye for, and understanding of poverty: one of the men in the group he is following says:
Klein and Lecocq d'Arneville were definitely the most forthright, unpretentious members of our group. They were close, like brothers. They'd both had difficult childhoods, with their mothers watching every sou... Both these fellows were desperate to better themselves and agonized over anything that stood in their way.
There is something so profoundly of the humanist in Simenon's writing that I feel as if his talents were wasted on detective fiction.
I have to say I am not a fan of the crime novel, and I realize that part of the problem is this excruciating build up of details. The detective pursues facts, leaving no snippet of information or hint of a clue unfollowed. Maigret with grim reality tracks each opening; he stores names, times, places, events in a careful catalogue in his mind - which is what put me repeatedly into the land of nod. A pity, because his descriptions of Paris, Rheims, the Belgian town of Liège, and Bremen in North Germany form a fascinating picture of this area in the late 1920s.
Simenon based this story on an event in his own life, involving a group of friends he knew in his birth town of Liège - and it is to this town that the story centres and eventually closes around yielding up the secrets of a group of young men from almost 10 years earlier. The 'almost' of particular importance as there is a "statute of limitations" - the crime will be closed after a 10 year lapse.
I suppose the other point of interest is the character of Maigret - a man of absolute reserve, discretion and an uncanny ability to provoke his suspects into revealing what they least want the inspector to know. Several times Maigret's life is at risk, but he handles each moment with a stupendous calm and resilience - he is an extremely admirable character.
Although this is my first reading experience of Maigret, I picked up this volume because I recently re-watched one of the excellent TV episodes with Rowan Atkinson - who does an exact recreation of my own understanding of the book's main character; although Atkinson doesn't have Maigret's girth, height, or breadth of shoulder. He does however have that remarkable - silence, and restraint of manner, simply puffing on his pipe and waiting for the suspect to slip up.
So a mixed read. There are, however 28 Maigret short stories and 75 novels. I must find one of his novels. -
Poverty, trauma and guilt.
Maigret chances upon a man who does something that he both witnesses and is shocked by. This event, and those leading up to it, with Maigret directly connected begin this story.
As with Inspector Maigret through his creator Georges Simenon, the reader is treated to solid, measured but agile police work that builds a trail from pieces of evidence and information. It is not clear why things have happened the way they have; there are some discoveries that only complicate matters and there are people who are more or less than they appear.
The enjoyment of an author able to complete a murder-mystery with solid police work that is described with detail, and a sharpness that requires no car chases or shoot-outs is to enjoy.
My edition was the Penguin Classics published in 2014, translated into English by Linda Coverdale. 144 pages. -
Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down!
Favorite passages:
This is suggestive of Maigret's single-mindedness and determination to get to the bottom of things: "He considered stopping by his home on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir to kiss his wife and change his clothes, but the incident at the station was bothering him."
This is reminiscent of my family heritage: "On one of the chairs sat a woman who was still young, dressed with humble care that bespeaks long hours of sewing by lamplight, making do with the best one has."
Maigret again, working stolidly to unravel the mystery: "There was something implacable and inhuman about him that suggested a pachyderm plodding inexorably towards its goal." -
The more Maigret novels I read, the more I believe I've made a good choice in reading the entire series. I am only through book four and I'm already craving the next one.
This time I'm linking my thoughts on this book directly to my reading journal where I talk about it in conjunction with the other two I've just recently finished,
The Carter of 'La Providence' and
The Late Monsieur Gallet.
http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/09/...
Simenon is a master of human nature, and considering I read mainly to discover what makes people tick, well, I'm in my element here. -
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is a 1931 crime novel in a series featuring D.I. Jules Maigret. Maigret observes strange behavior in a man and witnesses this man suddenly commit suicide.
The scene that Maigret sees prompts him to investigate why an obviously indigent man, who had bought dinner and a hotel room, would abandon them to die by suicide when he couldn’t locate his suitcase. Maigret is not only curious but also feels guilty about the man’s death.
His investigation takes place in France, Belgium, and Germany where he encounters several men who appear to have a connection to the victim. Determination and guilt initially fuel Maigret’s actions to figure out the inconsistency surrounding this non-crime. Only what he discovers at the root of this mystery is a ten-year-old crime conspiracy.
This is a fast read that has a heavy police procedural feel. Although Maigret is a police detective, his characterization felt more like a hardboiled P.I. to me. Since it was my first book by Simenon and that I jumped into the series at book 4, I cannot say if the earlier books provided backstory on Maigret. Here, I only got that he was patient, dogged, and believed in “gray” areas when it comes to crime. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien works fine as a stand alone in my opinion. The only minor confusion I had was when the persons of interest were introduced, I kept getting the setting and name of the person mixed up. I could attribute this to my lack of familiarity about cities within the setting locations. The story has a bleak tone, but it wasn’t gritty and didn’t have any overly graphic or intimate descriptions.
Overall, this novella was a good first introduction to this Belgian author. And with seventy-five primary works about this French police detective, I am sure to discover more on his character arc and another intriguing mystery to read. -
3.5 stars
ژرژ سیمنون در سال 1975 این داستان رو مینویسه . داستان زندگی چند دوست قدیمی که بازرس مگره می خواهد ارتباط اونها رو با خودکشی لوئی ژونه که در گذشته با هم تحت تاثیر الکل و تفکرات آنارشیستی بودند، مشخص بکنه
سوال عمومی که ایجاد میشه اینجاست که
هر کدام از ما تا چه اندازه می تونیم با اشتباهاتمون که بعضا رنگ خون هم گرفته و در گذشته دور اتفاق افتاده کنار بیاییم؟ اگر در جوانی یا نوجوانی مرتکب یک جنایت یا عمل ضد اجتماعی سطح بالایی بشیم ، در آینده و در زمان بلوغ فکری میتونیم اقدامات گذشته رو فراموش کنیم؟
در این داستان ژرژ سیمنون ، به انواع برخورد افراد در این خصوص می پردازه... گروهی هستند که اصرار دارند که باید مجازات شوند به خاطر خطاهای گذشته و یک لحظه آرامش وجدان ندارند و گروهی دیگر که میخواهند گذشته رو فراموش کنند تا بتوانند با آسایش زندگی کنند
شما جزء کدوم دسته هستید؟ اگر مرتکب یک جنایت بشید در دوران نوجوانی و پلیس هم متوجه نشه با وجدانتان چی کار می کنید؟ آیا خودتون رو مجازات می کنید و اصرار دارید که واقعه رو فراموش نکنید؟ یا سعی در فراموشی دارید ( از طریق فعالیت های اجتماعی، ازدواج، فرزند ، شغل و...) برای بهره مندی از قسمتهای خوب زندگی؟ -
John Lanchester, in his excellent article, "Maigret's Room", in the London Review of Books
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n... (I hope that folks can read this without being subscribers) writes:
"When I tell people I'm a fan, I'm often asked which I like best; although it's a good and simple question, it stumps me. They are eerily alike in quality - no especial highs, no especial lows."
I agree with that in general, but occasionally a Maigret novel stands out, and this early one does that. It's a classic example of Maigret as an non-judgemental observer of people and human nature. -
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien (also published as Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets ) begins with Detective Chief Inspector Jules Maigret following a French suspect in Germany, one who commits suicide within the first few pages. Maigret immediately realizes that, without meaning to, he has caused a certain Louis Genet to shoot himself in the mouth.
This terrible turn of event leads Maigret to try to discover more about this Louis Genet — who turns out to be traveling under an assumed name. As Maigret tries to find out this man’s real identity, he stumbles onto a bigger — and older — crime. To say more would be to ruin the mystery, but let me say that, of the four Georges Simenon novels I’ve read, this is the most unusual and the best. The novel really shows Maigret as the unique officer of the law that he is. Highly recommended. -
Why did a poor man post 30,000 francs to himself?
Why did he shoot himself after misplacing some old blood stained clothes?
Why did the dapper businessman Joseph Van Damme show such an interest in the dead man?
Why are newspaper and police records of February 15 missing?
Why did a man hang himself?
Why is Van Damme always ahead of the Inspector?
Writer Georges Simenon has composed a intricate mystery which does not need;
shoot-outs,
car chases,
explosions,
femme fatale.
There is a however a thoroughly descriptive story of police leg-work, which rates among the best.
Enjoy! -
Maigret has an unusual dilemma in this tale: his conscience is bothering him about a suicide he's witnessed and is certain he has caused. The man who killed himself was using a fake passport, dressed shabbily and acting oddly, but was he a criminal? Maigret finds himself delving deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding this man -- and examining his own conscience along the way.
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DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
BOOK 26
My second Simenon. But a rather expected story...
CAST- 4 stars: Maigret "still clenched his pipe between his teeth, but it had gone out. And his fleshy face, which seemed punched out of dense clay by strong thumbs, bore an expression bordering on fear or disaster." Maigret should be afraid as he may have caused the mysterious Louis Jeunet to commit suicide. And this guy named Van Damme: why does he show up at the morgue to see Jeunet's body? Three other characters enter: Belloir, Jef Lombard, and a bearded man. Do these 4 men have some kind of relationship with Jeunet? Very good cast.
ATMOSPHERE - 3: In this relatively short novel, Simenon focuses on people more so than atmosphere. Early (first page) the author writes that a train station restaurant "resembles all those found at international borders...A display case contains Dutch chocolate and German cigarettes. Gin and schnapps are served...the place felt stuffy." And that's about as deep as the author goes until all characters unite in a creepy room with multiple drawings of a hanged man.
PLOT - 3: In 1930 or so, this plot may have felt highly original. But today, it's been done and done and I can't say if, in 1930, it hadn't been done many times by then. A man kills himself as Maigret watches, then 4 men enter the picture. These five had been to school together about 10 years ago. How are the five related?
INVESTIGATION - 3: Maigret doggedly visits newspaper offices and archives to find out what, exactly, happened 10 years ago on a February 15th. But at every archive, a page is missing from the paper on that date. Someone is one step ahead of him. And behind him. And all around him.
RESOLUTION - 3: Solid, as Simenon pulls it altogether. Like I said before, this is an oft-told tale...at least by 2019.
SUMMARY - 3.2. This is a story about people: Maigret and five men with a past. It's a solid, fast read: Simenon doesn't waste a word. -
Thoroughly enjoying reading the Maigret books in their original order (and not the slightly different order of the excellent new Penguin translations). I don't know why that feels important. It probably isn't significant yet the feeling prevails nonetheless.
I love Simenon's bleak, sparse, yet superbly descriptive, writing style. It makes me believe this is how things were in the late 20's/early 30's. He isn't afraid to highlight the prevailing poverty of the age, and the frequently dark and grimy edges of humanity. I also like the fact that, in the main, the 'bad guys' in these novels appear to be less of the 'monster' variety, than victims of circumstance; where a series of events has conspired against the protagonist and taken them down a path they would much rather not have ventured down if things had been any different. Probably. Such are the choices that present themselves, and such are the actions that people take or don't take.
The books are lightning fast reads which only adds to the roller coaster excitement. Doubly so in the final chapters of each novel as the tension is ratcheted. Maigret isn't perfect, not by any stretch, but he is human. And he isn't afraid to place the human cost of a decision ahead of any adherence to the letter of the law. You really do have to admire him for that stance. -
On a train journey, Inspector Maigret espies a shifty, nervous young man guarding a battered old suitcase with odd intensity. Maigret judges the man suspicious and so follows him, then at an opportune moment let’s a strange curiosity gets the better of him and switches the man’s suitcase for a lookalike. Later though he witnesses the man open the new case and be so horrified by what he finds – or what he doesn’t find – that he immediately blows his brains out. But when Maigret opens the real case, he finds that it contains nothing valuable at all, just a stained old suit.
Maigret begins to investigate. But this isn’t a case where the Inspector is called in to meet a strange new crime, but one loaded with guilt as Maigret tries to find out just how responsible he is for this death.
This isn’t so much a whodunit then, as ‘a what the hell is going on’ crime novel. The Inspector swiftly comes across a group of men who are connected to the deceased and are obviously covering up. But what are they covering up? And why is it so important that Maigret now finds his life in danger?
Obviously this is the kind of mystery which only exists in crime fiction. No police force, on either side of The Channel, is going to hold their hands up to ever having a case like this. But the lack of realism, or the fact that it’s all building up to a stagey revelation scene, doesn’t impact how hard this novel hits. Yes, there’s a huge amount of artifice, but it feels like there’s a real humanity at stake here. So by the end we’re not just looking at the denouement (as we sometimes do with Ms Sayers or Ms Christie) for how cleverly the author has deployed the red herrings, but actually feeling real human emotions and a surfeit of compassion.
It’s crime fiction, but it’s not crime fiction just about death – it’s about regrets and escaping your past and making sure that your kids are raised properly. It’s about people, and it’s all the more powerful for it. -
Georges Simenon is the antidote to all those fussy little mysteries where everything is so clear-cut, and all the detective has to do is waltz between a few suspects until he or she finds the guilty party in a final dash of brilliance. No, there is a kind of Gallic fog about Simenon's Inspector Maigret. Maigret is French to a fault. We start out Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets with a few very discordant facts, and very little idea of whether a crime was committed or, if so, the nature of that crime:
A poor unemployed workingman travels to Bremen with a cheap suitcase.
On a hunch, Maigret follows him and, at the station, out of a sense of playfulness, trades suitcases (he has an identical one).
When he finds out that the suitcases have been exchanged, the workingman commits suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a revolver.
What was in the traded suitcase? Nothing but an old suit with bloodstains on it.
There are four or five men who seem to come together at odd times when Maigret is around; and they are obviously very put out with Maigret's involvement. What does this French cop know? Is he on to us?
And so it goes until Maigret discovers the facts of the case by a process known in French as débrouiller or "cutting through the fog." This case, like so many of Maigret's, is clearly wrapped in some obscuring mists. It is Maigret's stolidity and persistence which sees him through the smoke, despite two murder attempts on him, and outlasting his adversaries (when he doesn't even know why they are his adversaries).
I love reading Simenon's mysteries, and this is one of his good early ones. -
Maigret was tall and wide, particularly broad shouldered, solidly built, and his run-of-the-mill clothes emphasized his peasant stockiness. His features were coarse, and his eyes seemed as still and dull as a cow's. In this he resembled certain figures out of children's nightmares, those monstrously big blank-faced creatures that bear down upon sleepers as if to crush them. There was something implacable and inhuman about him that suggested a pachyderm plodding inexorably towards his goal.
Ah, but Maigret is very human indeed! Curious and persistent and it gets him in quite the quagmire of a dilemma in another installment of this excellent series. This novella could be read in a day. The story starts out as somewhat a lark for Maigret and opportunity for a little ego-boost as a man has caught his eye while traveling in Belgium. His internal radar goes off telling him that this man is involved in criminal activity. What happens next, shakes Maigret to his core and he gets starts to investigate the circumstances and finds himself going down a rabbit-hole and someone always seems to be one step ahead of him!
Maigret himself understands he has opened a bag of worms as he exclaims to his assistant: I hardly know myself! A very strange fellow has died, in a way that makes no sense, right in front of me-and THAT incident is all tied up in the most ungodly tangle of events, which I am attempting to figure out. I'm charging blindly at it like a wild boar and wouldn't be surprised if I wound up getting my knuckles rapped. -
Another great story with an unexpected ending. Something you would never see in a modern crime story. Maigret see’s a poor man post 30000 francs and his curiosity is aroused. On impulse he follows him and swaps his suitcase for a duplicate. Then in Bremen at a cheap hotel Maigret watches through a keyhole the man open the case and in despair shoot himself after seeing it is not his suitcase.
Maigret feels remorse at this sudden suicide and finds in the suitcase he swapped just a suit of old bloodstained clothes. He then investigates why the man killed himself. He uncovers an event that happened almost 10 years ago in Liege amongst a group of young men. Excellent characterizations of Van Damne, Lombard, Belloir, Klein and Lecocq.
A very atmospheric story where Maigret uses silence and his presence to assist in resolving the case. The suspects slowly unravel with the pressure Maigret places on the companions of the apocalypse. I also liked the ending. -
Maigret Unravels a Conspiracy
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (2014) of a new translation by
Linda Coverdale from the French language original
Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien (1931)"You know, vieux, ten more cases like that one and I'll hand in my resignation. Because it would prove that there's a good old Good Lord up there who's decided to take up police work." - Chief Inspector Maigret to his vieux (Untranslated French expression for 'old chum', 'old pal') Inspector Lucas towards the conclusion of The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien.
Photograph by Harry Gruyaert for Magnum Photos, of which a portion is used for the new Penguin Classics cover of "The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien." Image sourced from
L'oeil de la Photographie.
As unorthodox as "The Late Monsieur Gallet", the previous entry in the series was, Georges Simenon (1903-1989) takes even more risks in this one. One of the first English translations even titled it as
The Crime of Inspector Maigret in 1932. The opening has Maigret following a suspicious character whom he sees mailing money as 'printed matter.' When the suspect buys a cheap suitcase, Maigret buys an identical one. He then continues to follow and has an opportunity to switch suitcases. Arriving at a hotel with the suspect, he finds the purloined suitcase only contains a bloodied old suit and the suspect has committed suicide after discovering he has been robbed. What to do now?
Maigret sets out to unravel the background to the suicide and gradually unveils a conspiracy that dates back 10 years. He is confounded in that pre-internet age by one of the conspirators going around town and destroying any item in any newspaper archive that would reveal incidents at a certain time and place. But Maigret will not stop until all is revealed.
In order to confuse the completists, this is Maigret #3 in the Penguin Classics series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and short stories, but it is considered #4 according to the previous standard
Maigret Series Listopia as listed on Goodreads.
Trivia and Links
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, under its original French title Le pendu de Saint-Pholien, was adapted for French television in 1981 as Episode 48 of
Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret) (1967-1990) with Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.
There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at
Maigret, the Enduring Appeal of the Parisian Sleuth by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019. -
Zu dieser Kriminalgeschichte, eine der zahlreichen Maigret-Fälle, passt zwar auf dem ersten Blick kein "erstaunlich" oder "großartig". Sie ist genauso schlicht verfasst wie die anderen. Sogar mit dem Einstieg hatte ich meine Schwierigkeiten, weil ich Maigrets "Scherz" menschlich nicht nachvollziehen konnte. Und trotzdem entwickelte sich eine faszinierende Handlung mit einer gekonnt in Szene gesetzten Auflösung. Ich hatte nicht länger das Gefühl ein Buch zu lesen, sondern vielmehr einen Film anzusehen. Simenons plastische Darstellung aller Beteiligten und ihrer Umgebung lässt mich geradezu erstaunt zurück. Nicht zu vergessen, mit einem Ende, bei dem vielleicht nicht jeder Leser konform mit Maigret denken wird. - Ein Buch, das mich nach dem Auslesen nicht gleich loslässt, verdient fünf Sterne.
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Questo romanzo, il quarto della serie del commissario Maigret, è stata una lettura molto coinvolgente ed amara. Simenon, con uno stile quasi dimesso, ci precipita nel grigiore della provincia olandese, con ambientazioni povere, squallide, così lontane dai fasti dei viali parigini.
Anche i personaggi sono falsi, ambigui, nervosi e l’inchiesta del commissario procede con fatica in questo clima teso e misterioso, a volte quasi da dramma psicologico più che da romanzo giallo.
Fortemente condizionata da una esperienza autobiografica di Simenon, con inquietanti analogie, la storia parla di una giovinezza ormai andata, lasciando indietro romantici ideali e folli vendette.
Il finale trasuda dell’umanità di Maigret, che va oltre le regole, ma che gli fa sentire il peso degli avvenimenti al punto da dire:
Dieci casi come questo e do le dimissioni... Perché sarebbe la prova che lassù c'è un Dio galantuomo che si incarica di fare il poliziotto… -
به طور اتفاقی کتاب را در ایستگاه راهآهنْ شروع کردم به خواندن، و صحنهی آغازین داستان هم دقیقا در ایستگاه قطار اتفاق میافتد! و این هم اولین کتابِ دورهی فشردهی یک-ماه-مرخصی-تا-میتونی-بخونِ من: فال نیک و اینها!
مگره کارآگاهی نیست که دغدغهاش، وسواس اجرای قانون و انجام مأموریت باشد؛ کنجکاو است فقط - بدون ویژگی بارز دیگری که معمولا کارآگاهان را به ابرقهرمان تبدیل میکند. -
Maigret follows a suspicious character to Bremen and witnesses his suicide - he determines to find out why, and the back story takes him across Belgium and France. Quite a strong psychological strain runs through this book, with Maigret's doggedness putting on the pressure.
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Au terme d'une mission accomplie à Bruxelles, Maigret, intrigué par un individu suspect aperçu dans un petit café de la ville, le suit jusqu'à son arrivée à Brême où l'inconnu, qui s'appelle Jeunet, se suicide en constatant qu'on a substitué à sa valise une autre toute semblable. Maigret, qui avait procédé à cette substitution pendant le voyage en train, s'aperçoit que la valise de Jeunet contient de vieux vêtements tachés de sang.
4* Pietr the Latvian (Maigret, #1)
3* The Carter of 'La Providence' (Maigret, #2)
3* The Late Monsieur Gallet (Maigret, #3)
4* The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien (Maigret, #4)
3* A Man's Head (Maigret #5)
4* The Yellow Dog (Maigret #6)
4* The Night at the Crossroads (Maigret #7)
2* A Crime in Holland (Maigret #8)
3* The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin (Maigret #10)
3* The Two-Penny Bar (Maigret, #11)
4* Lock No. 1 (Maigret, #18)
4* The Cellars of the Majestic (Maigret, #20)
3* Inspector Cadaver (Maigret, #25)
4* Maigret's Holiday (Maigret, #28)
4* La première enquête de Maigret (Maigret, #30)
4* My Friend Maigret (Maigret #31)
4* Maigret at the Coroner's (Maigret #32)
3* The Friend of Madame Maigret (Maigret #34)
3* Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (Maigret, #38)
TR The Grand Banks Café (Maigret, #9)
TR The Shadow Puppet (Inspector Maigret #12)
TR The Saint-Fiacre Affair (Inspector Maigret #13)
TR The Flemish House (Maigret, #14)
TR The Misty Harbour (Maigret, #15)
TR The Madman of Bergerac (Inspector Maigret #16)
TR Liberty Bar (Maigret, #17)
TR Maigret (Maigret, #19)
TR The Judge's House (Maigret, #21)
TR Cécile is Dead (Maigret, #22)
TR Signed, Picpus (Maigret, #23)
TR Félicie (Maigret, #24)
TR Maigret Se Fache (Maigret, #26)
TR Maigret à New York (Maigret, #27)
TR Il morto di Maigret (Maigret, #29)
TR Maigret et la Vieille Dame (Maigret, #33)
TR Le memorie di Maigret (Maigret #35)
TR Maigret in Montmartre (Maigret #36)
TR Maigret Rents a Room (Maigret #37)
TR Maigret and the Gangsters (Maigret #39)
TR Maigret's Revolver (Maigret #40) -
Very unique investigation by Maigret where more than one guilty person tries to kill him. The trail is fraught with someone just a few steps ahead of him, destroying evidence from a crime of 10 years gone. This one adds to Maigret's wisdom and stature.
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I enjoyed this early Maigret story. Previously I’ve often found Simenon’s books quite hard going but I think this new translation by Linda Coverdale is a big improvement on the early-60s translations I’ve read before.
The set-up is, to be honest, pretty unlikely. Maigret follows a man from Paris to Bremen in Germany by a long, devious route on slow trains...out of pure curiosity. There, out of pure curiosity but completely unwittingly, he acts in a way which drives the man to suicide. Maigret then investigates the events which may have led up to this.
The actual investigation is rather nebulous and a little frustrating for both Maigret and the reader, but I found Simenon’s depiction of the characters involved and of the ancient guilt which united them and drove them in different directions to be very convincing and rather touching. Like all the Maigret books this is short at about 120 pages, and the commendable brevity lends it an intensity which I found more involving than I had expected.
I am impressed with this translation and I will look out more of the new Penguin series; I think they may be a cure for my previous slight Simenon dubiety. Recommended. -
Compelling and unusual mystery. This early book is the best of the admittedly few Maigrets I have read so far!
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An early Maigret that doesn't disappoint. Simenon himself was a bit of an enigma and the way he writes Maigret in these early books probably tells you a lot more about how Simenon saw himself than it does about the man who would go on to star in over 70 detective novels. And no more so than this highly enjoyable read.
This is probably as much of a psychological study as Simenon could make his Maigret novels; unlike his other work, his roman durs, Jules Maigret inhabits the lighter side of Simenon's literature and whilst there's always somebody meeting a grizzly end and people behaving in a seemingly reprehensible manner these books are more often found to be almost light-hearted and populated by oddball characters, the least of which is the charming, often aloof, always drinking and eating something delicious, Chief Inspector Maigret.
All the usual ingredients are to be found in this book but it's the 30 page denouement that elevates this above the also rans and the swiftly written lesser Maigets in my opinion. The confession of The Companions of the Apocalypse mirrors the reported events of the death of one of Georges Simenons boyhood acquaintances and armed with this knowledge it feels almost like a confession from the great writer. And as close a one as you're likely to get from a man who consistently lied about himself, even in his own memoirs. I think the catharsis he enjoyed from writing this story is a major factor in the quality of the psychological insight to be found, especially so early in the series/his career. -
I quite enjoyed this one, I agree with another reviewer not so much a who-dunit as a why-dunit.
I was curious to see where it would go and it reached a satisfying conclusion. I am very much enjoying this series of books and I can see similarities between these and Marco Vichi's Inspector Bordelli series. So far the books have been short and sweet, hopefully further along there is longer ones to get my teeth into. 71 more to go and I can't wait to enjoy them -
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is the fourth book by
Georges Simenon. It was also published as
The Crime of Inspector Maigret (which also is the title of the 1st chapter) and
Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets. It was first published in 1931, along with a number of other Maigret stories.
The story is an interesting one. Maigret is in Brussels for a meeting. He sees a man, somewhat shabby, in a cafe. The man opens an envelope and begins counting 1000 franc notes. His curiosity piqued, Maigret follows the man. He wraps the money in a cheap package, addresses it to someone in Paris and mails it the cheapest route. Then he takes a shabby suitcase and takes the train to Bremen Germany. Maigret buys a similar suitcase and switches his with the man and also books a hotel room next door to the man's room. Watching through the keyhole, he sees the man open his suitcase, discover that it's not his and then Maigret is shocked when the man kills himself with a revolver.
So there you go, does that grab your interest? Feeling guilty somewhat, Maigret now begins to investigate the man and why he might have killed himself and what was the money for. This is basically a solo Maigret story, it's a case he needs to conduct on his own. It will mean traveling back to Paris and visiting other towns in France and Belgium. He will meet an interesting collection of strangers and try to ascertain how they are connected to the suicidal man.
It's a quick story, easy to see maybe how Simenon was able to produce so many books in a single year. Maigret is obstinate, frustrated, angry with himself and determined to get to the bottom of the situation. Were crimes involved? Why was the man living under an assumed name. Maigret meets his wife in Paris and feels even more of a need to resolve the situation to help put her mind at ease.
The story moves quickly and flows nicely. There is a nice tension established and little touches, physical threats against Maigret, meetings with the 'suspects' and a fascinating ending. Simenon starts off by grabbing your attention, holding it throughout and ultimately providing a satisfying conclusion. Great story (4.5 stars)
