Visiting a prisoner to inform him that his reprieve has been denied and that his execution is scheduled for the next day, Inspector Maigret listens to the condemned man's story, undertaking a personal investigation that leads him to the Guinguette à Deux Sous, a bar by the Seine, and into the seamy underbelly of bourgeois Paris.--

"When the manuscript of a debut crime novel arrives at a Parisian publishing house, everyone in the readers' room is convinced it's something special. And the committee for France's highest literary honour, the Prix Goncourt, agrees. But when the shortlist is announced, there's a problem for editor Violaine Lepage: she has no idea of the author's identity. As the police begin to investigate a series of murders strangely reminiscent of those recounted...