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Product Description
In a great courtroom drama, Maigret has to explain why he does not belive that Gaston Meurant was capable of slitting his aunt's throat for money and smothering a small child. But in saving him from the gallows, Maigret must expose some dark secretsabout Meurant's life. A painful story of an oppressive domestic tragedy and the compassionate insight of a remarkable detective. 'A truly wonderful writer ... marvellously readable - lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with that world he creates ofrun-down hotels, cold, dark barges, quayside canal-taverns, lurking prostitutes, pot-bellied burghers, taciturn youths, slippery barmen' - Muriel Spark, Sunday Times
About the Author
Georges Simenon was born at Liège in Belgium in 1903. He published over 160 books and his work has been admired by almost all the leading French and English critics. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and more than 40 have been filmed.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Maigret in Court" finds the famous detective contemplating retirement that is a couple of years away, and at the same time dealing with a brutal murder of a woman and child. The writing is once again crisp and to the point, but Simenon really seems to have added a sense of the passage of time to this 1960 story, and acknowledges both the changing world he writes about, and the ageing of his most well-known creation.
Everything is beautifully done: the taut, claustrophobic world of the court system with its rituals and processes, the unfolding lives of the people affected by the murders, and even the end of the book action sequence (told more through other characters than Maigret) - is done effectively. With the action told through bar-room telephone calls from police out in the field, it makes you realise that Simenon would have been right at home telling stories in the modern age of digital communication - yet he also manages perfectly well with out it!
These books are miniature masterpieces: they rarely run over 120 pages, yet pack so much of life into them that they are more than just read-once thrillers. With flair for the simple, telling phrase, a real sense of empathy with characters and an evocative sense of time and place, Simenon is a genuis at his craft - and better than Chandler at crime noir.
Everything is beautifully done: the taut, claustrophobic world of the court system with its rituals and processes, the unfolding lives of the people affected by the murders, and even the end of the book action sequence (told more through other characters than Maigret) - is done effectively. With the action told through bar-room telephone calls from police out in the field, it makes you realise that Simenon would have been right at home telling stories in the modern age of digital communication - yet he also manages perfectly well with out it!
These books are miniature masterpieces: they rarely run over 120 pages, yet pack so much of life into them that they are more than just read-once thrillers. With flair for the simple, telling phrase, a real sense of empathy with characters and an evocative sense of time and place, Simenon is a genuis at his craft - and better than Chandler at crime noir.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
A rather thoughtful mystery
23 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Once again I'm reminded of the subtle quality of Simenon's writing.
The story begins not with a body, but with the accused already in the dock. Maigret himself has put Gaston Meurant there for the murder of his aunt and the small child she was babysitting.
The evidence was damning, and yet Maigret was not satisfied with the way the facts fit the personalities involved. He continued to work on the case after it was solved. And in chapter one we watch him upsetting all the lawyers in court by recasting the investigation at the trial.
Then we follow Maigret's restless search for the truth as he plays cat and mouse with all the same characters all over again.
Maigret is ever ambivalent about guilt and judgment, and this unconventional attitude adds depth to a rather simple story. When the chief inspector retires in two years, he'll be released from his role in court, a disturbing role because, as he sees it, the evidence is always a mere digest of any particular human drama. So this simple story deals not only with the past and present, but also with an untried future.
The story begins not with a body, but with the accused already in the dock. Maigret himself has put Gaston Meurant there for the murder of his aunt and the small child she was babysitting.
The evidence was damning, and yet Maigret was not satisfied with the way the facts fit the personalities involved. He continued to work on the case after it was solved. And in chapter one we watch him upsetting all the lawyers in court by recasting the investigation at the trial.
Then we follow Maigret's restless search for the truth as he plays cat and mouse with all the same characters all over again.
Maigret is ever ambivalent about guilt and judgment, and this unconventional attitude adds depth to a rather simple story. When the chief inspector retires in two years, he'll be released from his role in court, a disturbing role because, as he sees it, the evidence is always a mere digest of any particular human drama. So this simple story deals not only with the past and present, but also with an untried future.
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