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Inspector Maigret

by75 books in this series
Book cover of Maigret Defends Himself by Georges Simenon

Maigret Defends Himself

For the first time in his career Inspector Maigret receives written summons to the Prefect's office where he learns that he has been accused of assaulting a young woman. With his career and reputation on the line, Maigret must fight to prove his innocence.
Book cover of Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon

Maigret Goes to School

When a school teacher from near La Rochelle asks Maigret for help to defend his innocence, Maigret returns with him to a small coastal town and confronts the insular community in order to discover the truth.
Book cover of Maigret's Anger by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Anger

During a quiet spell in June Maigret is called to investigate the disappearance of a reputable businessman. When a body is discovered near the famous Père Lachaise cemetery Maigret struggles to find any clues to the perpetrator and loses his temper when his own reputation is threatened by the case.
Book cover of Maigret's Childhood Friend by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Childhood Friend

When a long lost friend pays a visit to Maigret's office, he is shocked to learn that the man's roommate has been murdered. With the help of his old friend, Maigret delves into the life of the victim and finds a complex web of relationships that leads him to the culprit.
Book cover of Maigret's Doubts by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Doubts

An unusually quiet day for Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman, Xavier Manton. Maigret is puzzled by Manton's admission that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him and when he receives a visit from Mme Manton later that day he is not sure who to trust. Maigret heeds the advice of his seniors and investigates the couple and when a body is discovered everyone, including Maigret, is surprised.
Book cover of The Shadow Puppet by Georges Simenon

The Shadow Puppet

On a corner of the desk, the police gazette lay open, showing twenty or so photographs of wanted individuals. Most of them faces of thugs. Heads that bore the scars of degeneracy . . . And the warning, in red, Dangerous. Is still armed. A fellow who would not sell himself cheaply.

Well! Maigret would have preferred that to all this syrupy greyness, to these family sagas, to this still inexplicable murder which he found mind-boggling.
Book cover of The Two-Penny Bar by Georges Simenon

The Two-Penny Bar

We saw a door opening ahead of us. There was a car parked by the roadside. This guy came out pushing another guy in front of him. No, not pushing. Imagine you're carrying a shop dummy and trying to make it look like it's your friend walking next to you. He put him in the car and got into the driver's seat . . . The guy drove all over the place. He seemed to be looking for something, but seemed to keep losing his way. In the end, we realized what he'd been looking for.
Book cover of The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon

The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien

A first ink drawing showed a hanged man swinging from a gallows on which perched an enormous crow. And hanging was the leitmotif of at least twenty other etchings and pen or pencil sketches.
On the edge of a forest: a man hanging from every branch.
A church steeple: beneath the rooster atop the weather vane, a human body dangled from each arm of the cross . . . below another sketch were written four lines from Villon's
Ballade des Pendus.

On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself.
Book cover of Maigret and the Dead Girl by Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Dead Girl

Maigret and fellow inspector Lognon clash in their investigations into the murder of an unknown young woman in Paris. Maigret endeavours to piece together the story of the girl and in doing so uncovers details about her past and her character that lead him to the truth behind her tragic demise.
Book cover of Maigret and the Nahour Case by Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Nahour Case

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday


The seemingly open and shut case of the murdered gambler is anything but simple in this classic novel featuring the legendary Inspector Maigret

‘Maigret had often been called on to deal with individuals of this sort, who were equally at home in London, New York and Rome, who took planes the way other people took the Metro’

A professional gambler, Felix Nahour, has been shot dead in his elegant Parisian home, and his enigmatic wife seems the most likely culprit. All signs point to her guilt, but Inspector Maigret suspects this notorious case is far more complicated than it appears.

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian


‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Book cover of Maigret and the Old People by Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Old People

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday


The death of a beloved former ambassador unearths disturbing truths in this classic novel featuring Simenon's literary legend

‘He had seldom been so perplexed by human beings. Would a psychiatrist, a teacher or a novelist … have been better placed to understand characters who had suddenly materialized from another century?’


The violent death of a distinguished former ambassador, the Comte de Saint-Hilaire – an old man without political secrets or enemies – confounds Inspector Maigret, until a bundle of letters promises to uncover the tragic truth.


'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian


‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Book cover of Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses by Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses

‘Acute psychological insight and a distinctive, spare, atmospheric style … Simenon ought to be spoken of in the same breath as Camus, Beckett and Kafka’ Independent on Sunday


Faced with a house of tight-lipped witnesses to a murder, Simenon's legendary Inspector Maigret must change his methods to uncover the truth

‘The family and the house had turned in on themselves, acquiring a hostile face in the process’

The once-wealthy Lachaume family closes ranks when one of their own is shot dead, claiming to have heard and seen nothing of the murder. This leaves Maigret – along with a troublesome new magistrate who has waded into the case – to pick his way through their shameful secrets.

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian


‘Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend’ Boyd Tonkin, The Times

Book cover of Maigret Hesitates by Georges Simenon

Maigret Hesitates

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

'Maigret looked at him in some confusion, wondering if he waas dealing with a skilful actor or, on the contrary, with a sickly little man who found consolation in a subtle sense of humour.'

A series of anonymous letters lead Maigret into the wealthy household of an eminent laywer and a curious game of cat and mouse with Paris high society.

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian
Book cover of Maigret's Dead Man by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Dead Man

Without the injuries, the man's face would have been unremarkable, fairly young and probably quite cheerful. Even in death, there were traces of something open and honest in his expression . . . That shoeless foot looked incongruous lying on the pavement next to another foot encased in a shoe made of black kid leather. It was naked, private. It did not really seem dead. It was Maigret who retrieved the other shoe which lay by the kerb six or seven metres away.
Book cover of Maigret's First Case by Georges Simenon

Maigret's First Case

The profession he had always yearned for did not actually exist . . . he imagined a very clever, above all very understanding man, a cross between a doctor and a priest, a man capable of understanding another's destiny at first glance.

Maigret's first, and unofficial, investigation takes him into the hears of a bourgeois Paris household and a police cover-up.
Book cover of A Man's Head by Georges Simenon

A Man's Head

The Czech was warming up, though in a quiet, almost dull way that was characteristic of the man. Out of the corner of his eye, Maigret noticed his hands, long hands, astonishingly white and slightly freckled. They seemed to warm up to the subject too, and to take part in the conversation.

Maigret sets out to prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. As his unconventional and audacious plan to uncover the truth unfolds, he encounters rich American expatriates, some truly dangerous characters and their hidden motives.