Madame Maigret's Friend by Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon is always recommended, and this I found the most quizzical of the series. A complex plot wrapped around two mysteries and a manhunt gripping all of Paris. It had me puzzled to the very end.

Madame Maigret often arrives early for her series of dentist visits, waiting in the nearby Square d'Anvers. Every day she notices a young woman in a tailored blue suit and white hat with her two-year-old. Madame looks forward to sharing a bench for a few minutes. On this March day, the woman looks up at Avenue Trudaine and runs off, leaving Madame with the child. She didn't dare leave the boy and missed her appointment, as the woman took several hours to return, then called the boy to a waiting taxi before driving off without a word.

Maigret is working on the Steuvals Case. A bookbinder has been accused after neighbors claimed he was burning something noxious in his stove all day, and when examined, two human teeth are recovered. The only suit in his closet, bloodstained, he claims is not his. Between the time police are notified and they return with a warrant, an unscrupulous lawyer looking to make a name for himself has taken on the case before his client is even charged. Mild-mannered Frans Steuvals and his wife Fernande, a former streetwalker, have lived a quiet, unbothered life in the neighborhood. They both claim innocence—how can they be guilty in a case where there is not even a corpse?

Lucas and Janvier assist Maigret, along with eager new officer Lapointe, as the threads of Madame's missing young woman and the unknown body come together. Everyone is alerted, and all of Paris is gripped by the mystery, which includes an Italian Countess with a stash of jewels and a disreputable policeman turned weaselly private eye.

Simenon's talent is to give every character life, from the local neighborhood shops and cafes where the reporters drink, to each member of Maigret's team. Entertaining and well woven, this is prime Maigret - so dense I was happily stumped all the way to the finale, where the seedy villains receive a nasty outcome.

Also published as The Friend of Madame Maigret.

1950 / Tradeback / 192 pages