Rating: 5/5
Review:
A real pleasure
You just can't beat a good Maigret and I read this quickly
and with great pleasure. The two things
are linked, because Simenon's unfussy, direct style means that each of the
70-odd Maigret books is brief but very satisfying. This, like all of them, is as much about
character and Parisian life as about crime, but it's done so well that you
absorb it all while being involved in the story.
Here, Maigret begins to investigate the story of a woman
whom he arrested in amusing circumstances many years ago; she is concerned that
her safe-breaker husband has vanished after seeing a body in a house he broke
into. The plot development is steady and
secure but it is, as always, the characters, Maigret's means of confronting
suspects and the Parisian atmosphere (here in a hot late summer) which linger.
The new translation by David Watson is excellent. It is readable and true to the spirit of the
original so that you forget that you are reading a translation which is exactly
how it should be. (The sole infelicity,
"Boissier returned with a dossier," did make me smile but also
pointed out how very good it was overall.)
Quite simply, this is a pleasure. It's a fine translation of the work of a true
master and very warmly recommended.
(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)
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