I had a feeling I was going to like Inspector Maigret, and after reading Georges Simenon's The Bar on the Seine, I know I'll be looking for more of his mysteries. The Bar on the Seine is a slender little novel that can easily be read in just a sitting or two, though I spread Inspector Maigret's case out over the course of a week or so. Perhaps Simenon did this on purpose, but one mystery isn't enough to know everything about Maigret. As a matter of fact I really don't know much about him at all. I have a feeling his character is revealed slowly over time with each new mystery to be solved, and as there are over 70 Maigret mysteries that's a lot of time to develop his character more fully. I can say Maigret is cool, calm and collected and surprisingly sympathetic for a policeman.
Simenon's mystery is quite different than the usual British cozy mysteries that I'm used to. This story was much grittier and darker than your run-of-the-mill cozy. Written in 1932, it seems like a precursor to some of today's popular crime novels. He writes with a realism that gave me a good sense of place. I could visualize the seedy Parisian bars and the weekend trips to the country. I could feel the hot summer rain, and I could almost taste the Pernod that the characters seemed to be drinking incessantly. I've read that his work lent itself easily to film adaptations and am curious now to see something.
As for The Bar on the Seine? It begins on a lovely June day. "The sunshine as thick as syrup in the quiet streets of the left bank. And everything--the people's faces, the countless familiar sounds of the street--exuded a joy to be alive." Unfortunately for one man, a criminal Maigret put behind bars, his sunny days are about to come to an end. Maigret must give Lenoir the bad news that his appeal has failed and he is set to be executed the following morning. It's with regret that Maigret bears this bad news. Only twenty-two, Lenoir has been a gangster for a good chunk of his short life. Not only does Maigret regret his youth, but Lenoir has an air of self-confidence about him that Maigret admires (I told you he was sympathetic).
Set to go on his summer holiday, Maigret must postpone it and send off Madame Maigret alone to her sister in Alsace. In his last hours Lenoir alludes to a crime he saw committed years ago, one that he and an accomplice took advantage of. When he witnessed a body being dumped in a canal, he blackmailed the murderer. Only the murderer was wily and Lenoir not yet a seasoned criminal, so he lost his easy source of income when the murderer moved house and they lost him. Then just before Lenoir was arrested again he spotted the murderer at the guingette à deux sous. While Lenoir took the blame, so his accomplice could evade jail, he feels differently about the murderer walking free.
With only the name of the bar to go one, Maigret must find a murderer. His inquiries about the bar come up empty, but by chance Maigret overhears a man talking about the guingette à deux sous. About a mock wedding that is going to take place there, so Maigret follows him. In a rather roundabout way Maigret manages to find the place, a little country bar frequented by a group of friends each weekend where they drink, dance and generally make merry. Maigret blends in with the group and befriends an Englishman who forms one of the party. One murder leads to a second, which seems at first to be unrelated to Maigret's case.
Maigret will need to wade through blackmail, jealousy, lies, and infidelities to sort out these murders. As this was only my first Maigret mystery, I'm not sure I have a clear picture if this is how he normally works, but this wasn't really a straightforward police procedural. There are clues, but they're not presented in the same way as say an Agatha Christie mystery. Maigret spends most of his time interacting with the suspects, and he more or less works alone. He's sort of laid back about it all, but still very clever and in charge of what's going on around him. I'm very impressed by Maigret and will be reading more. Now I just need to decide whether I should go back and start at the beginning or just pick and choose at whim. Any suggestions from seasoned Maigret readers?