Maigret At The Coroner's by Georges Simenon

Detective Chief Inspector Maigret goes to America. As Scotland Yard visited France in My Friend Maigret, the police judiciaire sends Maigret on a study tour to view US police work. In every state he visits, he receives a silver Deputy Sheriff badge.

His contact, Agent Cole of the FBI, parks him at a Tucson courthouse, where a coroner's inquest is determining who is complicit in a death.

After a night of after-hours drinking, four Air Force mechanics and a girl drove into the desert night towards Nogales, the Mexican border town where anything might happen. Prostitution is illegal in Arizona, and you must be married to have sex. Two of the men compete to romance young Bessie, just seventeen but already married and divorced. Six jurors listen to the men state differing memories of the night under oath - they stopped twice for 'latrine duty'/they only stopped once - Bessie walked into the darkness with one man/she walked away with a different man - She wanted to be left behind/they left her behind. Either way, the men returned to Tucson without her. Known party girls like Bessie, the closest thing to a prostitute, can be treated badly, and she is later found dead on the railway tracks.

As only an observer, Maigret is quickly involved in the case, itching for them to ask the essential questions. The case is not his to solve, but his instincts are correct. "What was out of kilter in this country, where they had everything." His observations of America, as he works across towards California, and the intricate case itself, make up a highly entertaining entry in the series. Another terrific read.

1949 / Tradeback / 190 pages