Maigret Hesitates

Whenever I read a less-than-satisfactory mystery, I return with such relief to a Maigret, the prose so elegantly unpretentious, the scenes so true to human nature, the compelling characters rendered seemingly without effort. Maigret receives an anonymous letter predicting a murder. He has the unusual paper traced to the establishment of a rich lawyer, Emile Parendon. Parendon is delighted to meet Maigret, acknowledges that the paper belongs to his household and offers the superintendent free access to his home and his family. He is a long-time admirer of Maigret. Although Parendon specializes in Maritime law, he admits to an obsession with Article 64 of the French Penal Code, which states that an insane person who commits a crime is not responsible. This is a bit odd in the circumstances, but a lowly clerk tells Maigret that everyone in the house is "nuts": the eccentric reclusive lawyer, the society wife who creeps around the house like a spy, their strangely independent children and the young secretary who's having sex with the boss. Totally out of his element in this sumptuous mansion, Maigret has no clue who the victim will be, let alone the letter-writer or the potential murderer. He must rely on his ability to read the human heart. This is a delicious Maigret, perfect in its simplicity and poignancy.

A mysterious letter lures Maigret into an elegant but bizarre Parisian home. Maigret has received crank letters, but this one bears a difference - carefully written on sumptuous stationery, it states that a murder might take place but that the correspondent is unsure who the murderer and, in fact, who the victim will be. Maigret has no trouble tracing the stationary to the home of the Parendon family; from there on, however, clues to the potential crime are difficult to trace. In his inimitable way, Sienon has crafted a superb mystery and also drawn, with compassionate insight and clinical precision, a remarkable portrait of the obsessive personality ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (February 13, 1903-September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French.