Inspector Jules Maigret travels from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian.

In the darkness, the main room is as vast as a cathedral. A great empty space. Some warmth is still seeps from the radiators. Delfosse strikes a match. They stop a moment to catch their breath, and work out how far they have still to go. And suddenly the match falls to the ground, as Delfosse gives a sharp cry and rushes back towards the washroom door. In the dark, he loses his way, returns and bumps into Chabot. Maigret observes from a distance as...

Maigret sets out to prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. As his audacious plan to uncover the truth unfolds, he encounters rich American expatriates, some truly dangerous characters and their hidden motives.

Book four of the Inspector Maigret series. On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself.

"When multi-millionaire David Ward is found dead in the same hotel as a countess who attempted suicide only hours earlier, Maigret presumes that the two cases are connected. When the countess flees Paris after the murder Maigret follows her to Nice and then to Switzerland to uncover the truth."--Publisher's description.

Maigret finds himself drawn into an unsavoury world of political corruption, scandal and cover ups when he is summoned to a clandestine meeting by a desperate government minister one evening. 'Once alone in his office, he went over and opened the window as if being in charge of this case made him gasp for a breath of fresh air... It made him feel almost fond of the petty thieves, maniacs, swindlers and offenders of all kinds that he usually had to...

"When Maigret's holiday plans go awry he and his wife spend their vacation in Paris, on the condition that he has nothing to do with work. However a case involving the death of a doctor's wife intrigues Maigret and he assiduously follows its development in the papers. He cannot resist playing a few tricks on his colleague Janvier who is running the case and along the way Maigret uncovers something that is crucial to the murderer's discovery..."--Publisher's...

Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realised that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots' bars and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau's red chair framed by a window. "A man hauled out of the Charenton canal one...

In this make-believe memoir, Maigret recounts a meeting with the author himself. The account starts with the arrival of Georges Sim, as he is called here, at the Paris Police Judiciaire to soak up atmosphere for his crime novels by dogging the footsteps of Inspector Maigret. The detective is irritated by the audacious young writer who names a character after him and argues that he oversimplifies, in his fiction, the intricate duties of the police...

A visit from a long-lost choolmate who has fallen on hard times forces Maigret to unpick a seedy tangle of love affairs in Montmartre, and to confront the tragedy of wasted life. -- Page [4] of cover