'Remarkable' New York Times'No one is better than Simenon at showing how banal domestic conflict can lead to murderous catastrophe' Financial TimesAn acerbic tale of marital warfare and emotional estrangement, in a brilliant new translationIn the oppressive silence of the sitting room, the woman finally smoothed out the paper and, without putting on her glasses, read the two words her husband had written:The cat.Amidst the din of their Parisian neighbourhood, Émile and Marguerite live in total silence. After a hasty marriage in their sixties, their uneasy peace was shattered when Émile's beloved cat mysteriously disappeared and was later found dead. Branding his wife the culprit, Émile's retaliation against Marguerite's cherished parrot sparked a silent battle of wills. Now they live parallel lives, communicating only through spiteful notes, mocking glances and mute accusations. As their suspicion and resentment mount,...

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves'People who've been here a long time have been talking about him. This morning, when I was having my coffee and croissants, it was all they were talking about. The old folks, even the middle-aged people, remember him and can't understand how he could have become a tramp. Apparently he was a good-looking man, tall and strong, who had a good profession and made a very decent living. And yet he vanished overnight without saying a word to anyone.' The death of a homeless man in a condemned building in Les Halles leads Maigret on the trail of the vagrant's mysterious past, and an event that happened years ago in the close-knit community of Montmartre.'His artistry is supreme' John Banville'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

For the first time in his career Inspector Maigret receives written summons to the Chief Commissioner's office where he learns that he has been accused of assaulting a young woman. With his career and reputation on the line, Maigret must fight to prove his innocence.enguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret on the Defensive.'His artistry is supreme' John Banville'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

On his latest case, Maigret finds himself in the town of Delfzijl investigating the murder of a teacher. He is presented with two clues-a sailor's cap in the bathtub and a Manila cigar butt-and a gaggle of suspects, including a flirtatious farmer's daughter, an angry lawyer, a larcenous ship owner, an unaccountably frightened cadet, and a pompous criminologist with a revolver. The Inspector, in turn, is preoccupied with a suspicious pathway lit by a lighthouse beam, which leads him to wonder if this is the kind of spot where secret lovers might be discovered...

A homeless man is found beaten and unconscious along the banks of the Seine. Inspector Maigret must connect him to a past--and a possible motive for for his attempted murder. The investigation provides Maigret with a chilling look at those who have rejected society and the small measure of justice it offers them.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves'What else did they have to do with their days? They ambled around casually. From time to time, they paused, not because they were out of breath but to admire a tree, a house, the play of light and shadow, or a face.'While taking a much-needed rest cure in Vichy with his wife, Maigret feels compelled to help with a local investigation, unravelling the secrets of the spa town's elegant inhabitants. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret Takes the Waters.'His artistry is supreme' John Banville'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

A brilliant new translation of Simenon's critically acclaimed masterpiece.'And always the dirty snow, the heaps of snow that look rotten, with black patches and embedded garbage ... unable to cover the filth.'Nineteen-year-old Frank - thug, thief, son of a brothel owner - gets by surprisingly well despite living in a city under military occupation, but a warm house and a full stomach are not enough to make him feel truly alive in such a climate of deceit and betrayal. During a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return. Georges Simenon's matchless novel is a brutal, compelling portrayal of a world without pity; a devastating journey through a psychological no-man's land.'Among the best novels of the twentieth century' New Yorker'An astonishing work' John Banville'So noir it makes Raymond Chandler look beige' Independent

In a dimly lit apartment building, where shadowy figures come and go, a man has been killed in Georges Simenon's The Shadow Puppet. On the dimly lit Place des Vosges, Maigret hears the sound of a woman in distress. But this is no crime; she is giving birth in a room above. The lights of the apartments across the courtyard flicker, and Maigret sees shadowy figures at the windows. Behind one is a dead man and an empty safe. As one life begins, another has come to a dark end.In this installment of the Maigret series, the Parisian detective uncovers a tragic story of desperate lives, unhappy families, addiction, and a terrible, fatal greed.

An evocative tale from Georges Simenon that unearths the inspector's past: Maigret finds an anonymous note predicting a crime in his hometown.I wish to inform you that a crime will be committed at the church of Saint-Fiacre during first mass on All Souls' Day.This handwritten note is deposited at the headquarters of the Police Judiciaire in Paris. Maigret sets off for the village, having been there last for his father's funeral.As bleary-eyed people depart the All Souls' service, Maigret thinks the note must be wrong—until the motionless Countess of Saint-Fiacre, upon closer look, is found dead in her pew. Who is responsible for the crime? Could it be the countess's young secretary and alleged lover, the tight-lipped priest, the profligate Count of Saint-Fiacre, or the new estate manager? Though inundated with troubling memories from his past, Maigret remains steadfast in his hunt for the truth behind this sinister turn of events.

Suddenly witness to a man's dreadful death, Inspector Maigret finds himself faced with a series of sordid events that drove the man to despair in this haunting tale of guilt and tragedy.While stopped at a railway station on the northern edge of Holland, Inspector Maigret catches sight of a traveler acting oddly: the man glances around furtively, pulls out handfuls of coins to pay for purchases, and guards a small suitcase. Maigret decides to follow the man, thinking he'll help catch a crook—but then the inspector witnesses something terrible. The stranger leaves behind only a passport with a false name and an old, large, dirty gray suit. Struck by guilt, Maigret resolves to figure out who this man was and why events ended so tragically. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is a moving and deep exploration into the burdens of conscience and the lengths one might go in pursuit of absolution.

Xavier Marton, the head of the toy department at the Grands Magasins du Louvre, a model train specialist, visits M to say that he thinks he wife wants to poison him, but leaves while M is out of the room. Later in the day the man's wife, Gisele Marton, also visits M, to tell her side of the story, which is that her husband is having delusions. Marton comes the next day, and agrees to have another examination with a psychiatrist. But he warns M that if she poisons him, he'll shoot her before he dies. Meanwhile, M has had both of them investigated, and finds that Gisele's sister, Jenny, is living with them, and that Marton is apparently enamored of her. Gisele, on the other hand, is apparently the lover of her employer, M. Harris. M has the house watched during the night, and by morning Marton is dead, accidentally poisoned by Jenny, when Gisele switched her cup of tea with her husband's. He had poisoned his own, with enough to make him sick, but not to kill him. Jenny thought he hadn't the nerve, so she added the poison to kill her sister.

'Read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday TimesCaptain Lannec has finally managed to buy his own ship with the financial help of his in-laws, the Pitards - and they've never let him forget it. When his temperamental wife Mathilde insists on coming along on the ship's first voyage, Lannec becomes increasingly unnerved by her presence, especially when he receives an anonymous note saying he won't make it back to port. As they hit a storm in the Atlantic, jealousy, spite, snobbery and suspicion are churned up in the boat's stiflingly close quarters...First published in 1935, The Pitards was one of the first novels Simenon wrote when he shelved his famous Maigret series in order to strike out in a new direction and make a name for himself as a literary writer. This gripping evocation of life at sea revolves around class and the tense unravelling of relationships, powerful themes that Simenon would return to throughout his...

In The Misty Harbor, a missing harbormaster turns up, only to be murdered on his first night home, in another captivating tale featuring Georges Simenon's intrepid Inspector Maigret.A man, clad in brand-new clothes with no identification, is found on the streets of Paris. Mute, he also has a bullet hole in his head that has been perfectly patched up—altogether a strange fellow, yet affable. His maid Julie soon turns up to claim him; he is Captain Yves Joris, the harbormaster at Ouistreham. Maigret accompanies the pair safely back home, but the next morning, the captain dies, poisoned. Maigret decides to stay, pacing the thickly fog-obscured docks, striking up conversations with busy figures. The new harbormaster doesn't know why three hundred thousand francs would have been transferred into Joris's account. Mayor Grandmaison has an attitude that suggests he'd rather be mingling with the town's social elite. Julie herself is loath to share anything...

Not a mystery in the mode that has made Simenon universally famous, this is a classic psychological novel, issued in France in 1935 but like all other works of merit, timeless. The author's stringent control of his material deepens the reader's feelings for Dr. Hans Kuperus of Sneek, a small town in Friesland. After killing his wife and her lover, Herr Schutter, Kuperus escapes suspicion and the townspeople sympathize with the widower for a time. Then he begins behaving extravagantly, flaunting his affair with his housekeeper and scandalizing the crabbed, insular community in other ways. Finally, the doctor has no practice, no friends; he and the housekeeper are prisoners in his house. Faithfully translated by Sainsbury, the narrative hauntingly describes the disintegration of human beings, damned by weaknesses that Simenon compels the reader to recognize and pity.