Described on the cover as the first Maigret novel, our favorite French Inspector is introduced with more florid prose than in later books as a wall of a man, stolid, solid, and imposing, but the usual tenacity, insight, and mysterious ways are already there.   Informed that a well known criminal is on his way to Paris via the Star of the North train, Maigret is at the station where a murder is discovered on the train. This launches a long series of strange encounters with Pietr in Paris and in Normandy with a stranger set of characters including a Russian Jewess, an American millionaire, French hotel managers and bar dancers, and Pietr’s twin brother.  A delicious start to a world class series.