Maigret in Exile is decidedly among my favorites. The copyright is 1942, a time when France was under German occupation. In Georges Simenon's fictional world of his Chief Superintendent Maigret, there is no direct mention of the war. However, Maigret has fallen into disfavor and has been reassigned from Paris to the post of divisional superintendent in remote Lucon. No one - including his wife - knows why. His new routine activities do indirectly suggest that something is amiss in France: he is concerned with a group of Poles that needed watching, the failure of some unspecified individuals to produce identity cards, and contraventions of restricted travel orders, etc.
The situation changes quickly when a sixty-four year old woman, Adine Hulot, specifically asks for Maigret; she reports that for two days a corpse has been lying on the bedroom floor in the adjacent villa, the home of Judge Forlacroix, formerly a magistrate at Versailles. The corpse is clearly visible from atop a ladder leaning against an apple tree. Adine and her husband have kept watch for two days. They believe that the judge will dispose of the body when the tide comes in tonight. And so begins a classic Maigret mystery.
Chief Inspector Maigret's home locale is Paris, but occasionally Maigret ventures elsewhere. His excursions into rural, provincial France are particularly fascinating. If you enjoy Maigret in Exile, I recommend the two following stories.
Maigret Goes Home (published in 1932, first published in English in 1940) is among the best stories by Simenon that I have encountered. It takes place in 1928, early in Maigret's career, and involves a unique visit to Maigret's childhood home, the village of Saint-Fiacre. Maigret Goes Home is a compelling story, one in which the mystery puzzle, the characters themselves, their psychology, and the intriguing locale all share front stage.
Maigret Goes to School (December, 1953) is another of my favorites. On an early, dazzling spring day Maigret accepts a plea to help a schoolmaster accused of murder in the small coastal community of Saint-Andre-sur-Mer. Maigret recognizes that his decision was perhaps less influenced by the claimant's plea and more by his own memories of white wine and fresh oysters characteristic of the Charentes region.