The Book Depository A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon
520 ratings
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Price: £9.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: A Maigret Christmas : Paperback : Penguin Books Ltd : 9780241356746 : 0241356741 : 30 Oct 2018 : First published in French as Un Nèoel de Maigret, 1951. The Book Depository A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780241356746
MPN: 0241356741
GTIN: 9780241356746
Author: Margaret Smith
Rating: 5
Review: This book was bought as a Christmas present for my husband who is a Simenon fan. Last year I bought him one of Simenon’s non Maigret stories (by mistake) so putting it right this year with a proper Maigret collection which I know he will love.
Author: Graham G Grant
Rating: 3
Review: The first story in this short collection is the only one to feature Maigret, so you may feel a little short-changed. Maigret’s Christmas Day is interrupted by neighbours reporting the apparent appearance of Father Christmas in an apartment opposite, spotted by a little girl. Maigret takes times out of his festive celebrations to investigate further, peeling back the layers of a clever little mystery. The common factor of all the stories is the gentle but evocative descriptive writing about Paris at Christmas-time, and the contrast between brightly-lit homes where children are sleeping or decorating the tree - and the seedy underbelly of the city streets. The middle story is probably the best, even though Maigret isn’t in it. It’s a cat-and-mouse story set in a police control room with the switchboard operator as the central character. It’s all a bit implausible but I liked the premise, the Hitchcockian suspense, and the claustrophobia of the setting. The final story is bleak and shocking, with a poignant ending, though it’s short on plotting - more of a vignette, but again with moments of brilliant descriptive writing.
