Maigret in Exile

In disgrace for some unnamed misstep, transferred ignominiously to a backwater, Maigret is pathetic in his desolation - until a corpse appears on the scene. The minute Maigret determines that indeed, there is a body in the Judge's house, as the village busybody maintains, he's his old self. Maigret back in Paris could scarcely be happier. Suspects who flee or won't talk, villagers who lie like troopers, young women who misbehave shamefully, past tragedies that obscure the present - nothing brings the chief inspector down. Maigret's exuberance is contagious, and his characters irresistible. Rarely does crime make such lighthearted reading.

Maigret has fallen into disfavor and has been appointed divisional superintendent in Lucon. There are mussel-gatherers in the vicinity. Mussels cooked in cream is mouclade. There are two mysteries--a corpse, and why Maigret has been transferred. Maigret derives sensual enjoyment dealing with mysteries. Maigret wishes that his machine for crime solution could be made available to him, but in its absence he must proceed anyhow. That is to say, Janvier and Lucas and the others have had to remain at their posts in Paris. The story takes place in 1940. Some of the villagers still wear clogs. The working methods of Maigret are displayed here in abundance. He runs through village informants and family members of the suspects, past and present, exhaustively. Maigret's sweep of people to be interviewed and ideas to be pursued is broad and deep. The result is satisfactory.

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.