Simenon published nine books in 1951; Five of them starred Commissaire Maigret of the police judiciaire de Paris. It is a heatwave in Paris during August and many of the staff of the PJ are away on holiday and Maigret pretty much has the place to himself. A large lady (Le Grande Perche) steps into his office and he recognises her from a case he worked some 17 years ago. She is now the partner of Alfred-le-Triste who has gone missing. Alfred is a notorious safe breaker and while cracking a safe in a large house he was surprised to see a dead body of a female, he panicked and left his tools behind. He is now in hiding and Le Grande Perche fears for his life. Maigret believes the story and starts an investigation. There is no trace of a body or a crime scene when he visits the house which is occupied by a dentist and his elderly mother, but Maigret is convinced there has been foul play.

Characterisation is important in this story and Guillaume Serre the dentist is well portrayed. He looks like a bigger version of Maigret himself (and that is big) and the story develops into a battle of wills between the two men. When Maigret finally calls him into the PJ for an interview in his office, it becomes a marathon session with Maigret's pipe smoking and Guillaume Serre smoking cigars, they end up by hardly being able to see each other. Maigret has to get up to open the window despite the heatwave. Inspector Janvier is around to do the leg work and madame Maigret puts in an appearance sitting downstairs on the terrace of the Brasserie Dauphine while her husband goes back and forth to his office. She wonders whether the four or five calvados that he drinks with her, will affect his work. When Maigret arrives for a steak-out of the dentists house, he sits in the restaurant opposite the large house and does not miss his aperitifs. It's all a bit different from the TV series Engrenage (2005-2020) where the team are usually huddled in the back of a van in the poor suburbs of Paris and must piss in a waterbottle.

The story is up to the usual standards of Simenon's police tales and although it is not difficult to guess the outcome, all the fun is in the getting there. Charming and 3.5 stars. ( )

Finished: 30/12/2020 ( )

Another excellent Maigret. ( )

altro titolo Maigret e la Pertica

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Full disclosure: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Oh Georges Simenon. Your tight, witty prose is so cool I feel more socially desirable just reading one of your books. It's a pity this is an ebook, otherwise my fellow commuters might've caught a glimpse of the cover and secretly hoped I'd be their friend.

Maigret and the Tall Woman is the 38th of the 76 novels Simenon wrote about his titular inspector, and as about a typical example of the series as you could hope for. That's not a criticism; with their low page counts and procedural nature, the Maigret novels have the feel of a quality television crime drama.

In each one we're presented with an intriguing or baffling situation, Maigret huffs around, has a few beers, puffs himself up for a fight – and we've quickly rattled through to the resolution. No padding, no fluff, just an absolute confidence in the author and the crime genre's literary ability.

My God Maigret, you're just so cool. ( )