I read this book for the reading challenge Back to the Classics 2022.
Classic in Translation: Maigret a peur was published in 1953. This translation by Margaret Duff was released in 1961. Duff also translated Maigret and the Apparition. In 2017, Penguin released a new translation of Maigret a peur by Ros Schwartz, who speaks the pandemic-induced truth when she says, “There's no substitute for face-to-face teaching.”
Maigret Afraid – Georges Simenon
Returning to Paris from a convention of cops in Bordeaux, series hero Maigret, a chief inspector, is feeling old and out of it. He has zero interest in the latest forensic technology. With 20 years as a detective behind him, he trusts his own experience and intuition when questioning people involved in crimes. He also has loyal and effective Lucas and Janvier to help him back in Paris.
After procrastinating a social visit for 20 years, Maigret stops at Fontenay-le-Comte to meet his college friend, Chabot, who is the examining magistrate in that country town in the southern Vendée region. Two murders in a week have rocked the nervous populace. The first victim is Robert de Courçon, an eccentric aristocrat; the second is the widow Gibon, a retired midwife. And Maigret is only hours in town when a third victim, the old drunkard Gobillard, falls victim to the lead-pipe wielding culprit.
Gobillard’s body was discovered by Alain Vernoux de Courçon, Robert's nephew. His explanation of being near the scene of the crime raises suspicions against him. A doctor who does not practice, Alain interests Maigret with his hypothesis regarding the culprit, who must be criminally insane since the victims have no connection with each other. But the local folks are getting distraught and restive. On top of forming vigilante groups to patrol the city at night, they suspect that Chabot the examining magistrate will not investigate Alain properly since Chabot is part of the in-crowd of the rich and powerful in the town.
… Rarely, however, had Maigret had such a strong sense of a clique. In a small town like this, of course there are the worthies, who are few and who inevitably meet each other several times a day, even if it is only in the street. Then there are the others, like those who stood huddled on the sidelines looking disgruntled.
The traditional Maigret pattern pieces are stitched together neatly in this novel. On the French Atlantic coast, the Vendée gets its share of rain in the spring. So the novel opens with the usual slashing rain storms. Simenon uses once again the narrow milieu that Maigret must crack open, this time, the élite of small-town rich slipping down the slope and their enabling town officials.
The theme of ‘time waits for nobody’ also comes to the fore. Maigret recalls their long-gone early life and wonders if Chabot was as listless in youth as he seems near retirement age. Maigret’s grunting and taciturnity seem tough but in fact he insightful about and careful with the feelings of others. Always emphasizing that he is acting in an unofficial capacity, Maigret is careful not to show up his languid friend. Maigret, however, takes tact a little too far when he remains only silently disapproving at the thuggish methods of the local police machinery, treating the vulnerable – poor, female, disliked – like trash.
And at the end Simenon returns us readers back to normal with Madam Maigret keeping home fires burning in their Paris apartment. It’s a marriage where both partners accept each other just as they are.
Other Maigret novels reviewed on this blog:
·
The
Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
·
Maigret
and the Wine Merchant
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