Another amazing coincidence which finds Maigret traveling to the French coast to a small village to solve the murder of the town grump.  The village schoolteacher shows up in Purgatory, the waiting room outside Maigret’s office, one day, Maigret listens to his story, and promptly takes a many hour train trip to the accused murder’s village.  What ensues is classic Maigret as he slowly but surely assesses the situation, the people, the motives, and the potential solutions, arriving at the identification of the murderer before he gets back on the train and returns to Paris.  As Simenon describes Maigret’s pattern, “At the beginning you see people from the outside. Their little traits are what show most clearly, and that’s amusing.  Then, gradually, you begin to put yourself in their shoes, to wonder why they behave in this or that fashion; you catch yourself thinking like them, and that’s much less amusing.”   Another fine Maigret for the summer!