The man with the pipe and overcoat: Ch Ins Maigret

[the hairy bloke]

I'm a fan, as I find the books as very atmospheric. I can follow Maigret around Paris quite easily.

My partner, though has never read one.

Any idea of which one would be the best to get (I don't own any at home)?

Something baased in Paris, and very noir, please.

 

[Two Types]

I'm a fan, as I find the books as very atmospheric. I can follow Maigret around Paris quite easily.

My partner, though has never read one.

Any idea of which one would be the best to get (I don't own any at home)?

Something baased in Paris, and very noir, please.

My favourite is 'The Bar on the Seine'. If I remember correctly, it includes scenes in a second hand clothes store and a hat shop. Great stuff. My all time favourite detective. In France they even have cookery books based on his wife's favourite recipes (mostly from Alsace?).

Also, it's worth reading Simenon's non-Maigret books. They are amazing.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

My favourite is 'The Bar on the Seine'. If I remember correctly, it includes scenes in a second hand clothes store and a hat shop. Great stuff. My all time favourite detective. In France they even have cookery books based on his wife's favourite recipes (mostly from Alsace?).

Also, it's worth reading Simenon's non-Maigret books. They are amazing.

The early Maigret's are superb - look for early 30s publication dates. Maigret and the Yellow Dog is a favorite of mine.

I second the notion of searching out Simenon's other novels. I especially recommend his short novel The Watchmaker if you can find it; it's set in upstate New York, published in the 1950s while Simenon was living in the US.

 

[Chasseur]

The Maigret novels are fun, fast reads that give a nice window to the times.

As the earlier posters said, Simenon's non-Maigret novels are very different and I often find more enriching reads. Not the light reading of Maigret, but wondeful in a very different ways.

I've loved almost all of Simenon's work, I highly recommend them.

 

[LocktownDog]

The early Maigret's are superb - look for early 30s publication dates. Maigret and the Yellow Dog is a favorite of mine.

I second this. Yellow Dog was really good. But then again, they all were.

 

[Two Types]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed his American novels. I didn't expect Simenon to be able to convey the same sense of emptiness once he moved his settings from the bleakest parts of France and Belgian to the USA. But it worked.

With the Maigret books, I like the sense of his humanity. He is one of the few literary detectives with a settled home life. His wife is a good character and one gets a sense of the depth of their relationship.

I would recommend Simenon to everyone.

 

[Touchofevil]

It's great to see Simenon getting some appreciation, he was and is a great entertainer. As the hairy bloke stated, he is atmospheric. He creates imagery which easily takes you along with Maigret wherever he may be. I would suggest either jumping in blindly or reading in chronological order as either way will surely be a good if not great time.

 

[Two Types]

Great news for Maigret fans: Penguin books are reissuing all 75 of the Maigret novels. They are publishing one each month (over the next six years!).

 

[Alice Blue]

Thanks for the tip! Actually these will be entirely new translations rather than a reissue.

 

[Two Types]

My only complaint is that I don't like the use of modern photos on the covers. There are plenty of period photos that would work much better.