I’m now about half way through my re-reading of all the Maigret novels from 1 through 72, and this is the first dud in the group.

Simenon’s Jules Maigret, the Chief Inspector of the Police Judiciare in Paris, is a wonderful character and he takes the reader through some wonderful parts of Paris as he slowly but surely delves into the psychology of the suspects, victims, and family and friends until he solves the crime.  When Simenon chooses to take Jules out of that environment, as in this book, the results are seldom positive.  Instead of giving us Maigret in Paris, this book has him in Tucson, Arizona of all places.  Maigret has been rewarded for his long service with a ‘sabbatical’ which he is spending in the US with an FBI agent who is ushering him from coast to coast on a bit of a busman’s holiday.  When they arrive in Tucson, Maigret is introduced to a unique American courtroom procedure, the coroner’s hearing, where a jury decides if a crime has been committed.  Through several long, very hot days Maigret sits in the courtroom as evidence is given regarding the death of Bessie Mitchell, a 17 year old  whose body was torn apart when it was hit by a train in the desert.  Maigret chafes as he is unable to question the five U.S. soldiers from a nearby base who are the suspects.

The story is thin material for a book and we don’t even learn the outcome of the jury’s deliberations before the book ends.  My very first disappointment with Simenon.  I look forward to the next Maigret book where, hopefully, we find him back on the Quai de Ouevres in Paris.