A superb and surprising Maigret, this 28th book in the series by the prolific writing Belgian, Georges Simeon was a great read.  I usually don’t love the Maigret  books that take place in locations other than Paris, but this one, set in the seaside town of Les Sables, was terrific.

Maigret and his wife are on holiday at the beach when their time is interrupted by Madame Maigret’s close encounter with a plate of mussels that ends up with appendicitis and surgery.  While visiting her in the clinic run by nuns, Maigret find a piece of paper that had been slipped into his coat asking him to have pity on patient #15.  When that patient dies the next day, Maigret is gradually drawn ever deeper into a complicated and fascinating web of intrigue, obfuscation, passion, and murder.  Engaged in a mental joust with Phillippe Bellamy, the leading citizen of the town, a neurologist and brother-in-law to Patient #15, Maigret needs all of his wits and deep probing of the psychology of the main players to solve this mystery.

I can’t share the plot without ruining it, but suffice it to say that this is one of the most intricate and fascinating novels in this series.  While reading it, I had an insight into how Simenon has infuenced more contemporary mystery writers.  The old saw “A stranger rides into town” is the basic structure of this book as well as the novels of Lee Child for example, where Jack Reacher gets off a bus in the middle of nowhere and is immediately thrust into a complex murderous situation.  Reacher and Maigret share a reticence and distance from the world, and though using very different methods, always end up solving the problem they were dropped into.

If you’ve been thinking of getting into Simenon, this would be a fine way to start, despite the absence of Paris.  The book was evidently written in a ten day span while Simenon was in Tucson, Arizona.  It has been made into movies in English, Dutch, and French and has at least four different titles.  The attention paid to this the 28th book in the series, is different from many of his others, perhaps reflecting my own high opinion of its plot and pace.  Enjoy!