Georges Simenon - A Man's Head

 

Rating: 4/5

Review:

An enjoyable early Maigret

 

I enjoyed A Man’s Head. I am slowly reading (and in a number of cases, re-reading) the Maigret seres from the beginning. This, depending on whose chronology you follow, is the fifth or the ninth. Whichever, it gives the sense that Simenon is really starting to hit his stride, with Maigret emerging as a very solid character in whom Simenon has real confidence.

A Man’s Head is an engaging read which has Simenon’s characteristic merit of brevity. There is very little wasted verbiage here and even Maigret’s dark nights of the soul are done with admirable concision, generating a fine, claustrophobic sort of atmosphere. I did find both the set-up and the psychology of the perpetrator more than a bit iffy (something I've found in other Maigrets) and Maigret's lengthy explanation at the end a little clumsy. Nonetheless, I enjoyed both the brooding, dogged Maigret himself and the atmosphere of Paris very much.

These new Penguin translations - this one is by David Coward - have improved Maigret enormously for me and I'll definitely be carrying on with the series.