Simenon published 28 short stories about Maigret, and nine of them are included in this marvelous volume.  The stories vary from a few to 108 pages, and the action takes place in Paris, the Vendee, and other parts of France.  One even unfolds after Maigret had retired but is lured back into action by a strange and forceful old woman who finds him in his garden in the country.  Lucas, Torrance, Janvier, and the usual crowd of inspectors appear, and Madame Maigret is prominent in nearly every story.  The stories are full of Paris sights, smells, sounds, and places, and the constant thread is the Chief Inspector’s quiet, plodding, thoughtful approach to every crime.  As Simenon observes in the ‘Maigret in Retirement’ final story:  “One must come to see them (the victims, perpetrators, witnesses, and onlookers) like the rest, naked and unadorned.”  Maigret is truly a superb student of the human condition, mostly our failures, faults, and weaknesses which bring the characters to crime and to his attention.  A fine collection.