Most Popular Books by Georges Simenon

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A gripping novel that sees Inspector Maigret brought out of his peaceful retirement “Maigret shrugged his shoulders, buried his hands in his pockets and went off without answering. He had just spent one of the most wretched days in his life. For hours, in his corner he had felt old and feeble, without idea or incentive. But now a tiny flame flickered. ‘You bet we'll see,’ he growled.” Maigret’s peaceful retirement in the countryside is disrupted when a relative unwittingly embroils himself in a crime he did not commit and the inspector returns to Police Headquarters in Paris once again.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a gambler is discovered dead in his home, a coincidence at the scene sends Inspector Maigret down a twisted path of secrets and lies in search of a killer Maigret receives an urgent call in the middle of the night from a doctor friend who says he has just treated a wealthy woman for a suspicious gunshot wound. Not long after, Maigret is called to the home of professional gambler, Felix Nahour, who has just been found by his chambermaid, shot dead. The inspector is shocked to find that he recognizes a photo of the man's wife, who quickly becomes his main suspect. All signs point to her guilt, but as he digs deeper, Maigret begins to infer there might be more to this complicated affair. Suspenseful and terrifically sinister, Maigret and the Nahour Case is a masterful exploration of the twin passions of love and hate as they mingle in the shadowy mind of a criminal.

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville Eyes half-closed, head tilted against the back of his seat, he seemed not to be thinking, as the plane flew over a thick carpet of bright clouds. In reality, he was making an effort to bring names and shadowy figures to life, names and figures that even this morning had been as unknown to him as the inhabitants of another planet. The attempted suicide of a countess and the death of a billionaire in the same luxury Paris hotel send Maigret to the Riviera and then to Switzerland, as he searches for the truth amid the glittering world of the super-rich. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret and the Millionaires. 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

'Why all of a sudden did this shock him? He was annoyed with himself for being shocked. He felt as if he had been sucked into the bourgeois, almost edifying, atmosphere that surrounded those epeople, 'good people' so everyone kept telling him.' A retired manufacturer has been shot dead by his own pistol, last seen alive by his son-in-law. In this seemingly motiveless murder, Inspector Maigret must rely on his famous intuition to discover the truth.

Mystery. Originally published in England as T̀he patience of Maigret' in 1940.

Xavier Marton, the head of the toy department at the Grands Magasins du Louvre, a model train specialist, visits M to say that he thinks he wife wants to poison him, but leaves while M is out of the room. Later in the day the man's wife, Gisele Marton, also visits M, to tell her side of the story, which is that her husband is having delusions. Marton comes the next day, and agrees to have another examination with a psychiatrist. But he warns M that if she poisons him, he'll shoot her before he dies. Meanwhile, M has had both of them investigated, and finds that Gisele's sister, Jenny, is living with them, and that Marton is apparently enamored of her. Gisele, on the other hand, is apparently the lover of her employer, M. Harris. M has the house watched during the night, and by morning Marton is dead, accidentally poisoned by Jenny, when Gisele switched her cup of tea with her husband's. He had poisoned his own, with enough to make him sick, but not to kill him. Jenny thought he hadn't the nerve, so she added the poison to kill her sister.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré Inspector Maigret is drawn out of retirement when a young woman is found dead in the Seine and her grandmother turns up at his door Two years into his retirement at Meung-sur-Loire, Maigret has yet to come across a case compelling enough to tempt him back into the business. But when 18-year-old Monita Malik is found dead in the Seine River, he is all but ordered to the small town of Orsennes by the girl’s grandmother. There, Maigret encounters Ernest Malik, an old acquaintance from his school days whom he’s always disliked on instinct, and it quickly becomes clear that Maigret’s presence is not welcome in Orsenne. When others from Orsenne’s elite families begin to go missing as well, Maigret can’t help but be swept up in the mystery.

'Irresistible... read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' The Sunday Times A trio of Simenon’s finest psychological novels from the 1960s, including: The Hand, Betty and The Blue Room Amidst the fury of a relentless snowstorm, the loyalties of two friends are put to the ultimate test, with fatal consequences. In the shadows of 1960s Paris, a woman on the brink of despair is offered a chance at redemption. But as the haunting truth of her past begins to emerge, it threatens to consume her. In a secluded hotel, an adulterous affair spirals into a terrible nightmare that will transform the couple’s lives forever. This new edition brings together Georges Simenon’s most gripping psychological novels from the 1960s, capturing the raw essence of human frailty and resilience during a time of profound social upheaval, and revealing the chilling brilliance of Simenon’s romans durs.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray Maigret finds himself back on the Rue des Acacias just ten days after cracking another case there. This time it is the murder of a criminal Maigret has known for over twenty years and one he always suspected was behind a string of jewellery robberies in the city. Maigret's patience is tested as he eliminates neighbour by neighbour in his hunt for the murderer. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret Bides His Time. 'His artistry is supreme' John Banville 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

“Simenon was fascinated by peculiarities of human personality, which he described in elegant, simple prose . . . as pure as running water.” —Roger Ebert It’s the height of spring, and Maigret is grappling with doubly unfamiliar circumstances. He’s in the surreal new village of Jeanneville, outside Paris, where an elderly bachelor has been shot dead in his home. Тhe prime witness, his twenty-four-year-old housekeeper, Félicie, may well be among Maigret’s most unnerving adversaries. Infuriatingly clever, singularly self-possessed, and overtly antagonistic, she is surely hiding something—but what? As their battle of wits pinballs the investigation between toy land–like Jeanneville and Paris’s seedy Place Pigalle, Maigret wonders what preoccupies him more: catching the perpetrator of a brutal murder, or solving the psychological puzzle box of Félicie? A diamond-sharp gem of crime fiction, Félicie is Georges Simenon at his mischievous best.

'The truth was, Maigret knew nothing! Maigret felt. Maigret was sure he was right, would have bet his life on it. But in vain he'd turned the problem over a hundred times in his head, in vain he'd had every taxi driver in Paris questioned' Written and published in journals during the Second World War, these seventeen short stories distil the atmosphere, themes and psychological intensity that make Simenon's famous detective series so compelling. Translated by Howard Curtis and Ros Schwartz 'Not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor' Boyd Tonkin, Times

Nine short stories make up this delightful holiday-themed collection, each featuring Georges Simenon's famous detective, Jules Maigret. Christmas mysteries abound: an otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold; another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him. Many of these stories feature observant and resourceful children, frightened yet resolute, who bring out a paternal streak in the childless Maigret. The rapport between the inspector and these youthful heroes imparts a delightful freshness to this holiday collection- a cornucopia for fans of Maigret and mysteries.

The near fatal shooting of a policeman takes Maigret into the art world-and Madame Maigret helps her husband solve the case. Translated by Margaret Duff. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

Penguin delivers two more vintage Inspector Maigret novels by the legendary mystery author In The Hotel Majestic, Maigret investigates the murder of Mrs. Clark, the wife of a wealthy American industrialist, whose strangled body is found in the basement of an upscale hotel near the Champs-Elysees. Maigret’s inquiries take him from the endless corridors of the Hotel Majestic to the countryside of the Bois de Boulogne and sun-drenched Cannes, into a world of prostitution, drug addiction, and blackmail.

On an errand of mercy, Maigret travels to a provincial village whose crafty inhabitants nearly foil the sleuth. Translated by Helen Thomson. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré The first-ever English publication of Georges Simenon’s compelling novel about summer escape and elusive obsessions “The island itself. Its throbbing heat as if in a belljar under the sun, the scorpion in his son’s bed, the deafening sound of cicadas.” During his first holiday on the island of Porquerolles, Dr. Mahé caught a glimpse of something irresistible. As the memory continues to haunt him, he falls prey to a delusion that may offer an escape from his conventional existence—or may destroy him. Taut, insightful, and impossible to put down, this is the first English translation of The Mahé Circle, Simenon’s dark, malevolent depiction of an ordinary man trapped in mundanity and consumed by obsession.

Inspector Maigret shows the ways of police work to a young writer and reveals his rural upbringing, his first assignment as a bicycle messenger, and how he wooed and won Madame Maigret