Reading in Reykjavík

Original title: Maigret tend un pieg e. Translated by Daphne Woodward (1965).  This is the first Maigret book I have read in ages.  Opening a Maigret novel is like visiting old friends, not just Maigret, Madame Maigret, Janvier and all the rest, but also Paris.  In this book, we jump into the middle of an investigation of serial murders in Montmartre and Maigret is about to set a trap for the killer. It doesn't go quite to plan - he escapes, but does leave behind a piece of evidence that will lead the police to him.  Like most other Maigret books I have read, this isn't a whodunnit. In the Maigret books, the identity of the killer isn't often hidden from the reader until the last chapter, and instead we get to see how Maigret figures it out (although sometimes the killer is known from the beginning). Then the rest of the book is about either proving it or applying so much psychological pressure that the killer gives up and confesses. In this book, there...

Original French title: Maigret et la grande perche translator: J. Maclaren-Ross Series detective: Chief-Inspector Maigret No. in series: 66 Year of publication: 1951 Type of mystery: Missing person/possible murder Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Paris, France; 1953s Story: A woman who once embarrassed Maigret when he was a young policeman comes to him with a fantastic story: her husband, a safecracker famous for his bad luck, found a murdered women in one of his break-ins and has fled the city for fear of being suspected of the murder. However, no murder has been reported in the suburb where it happened, and Maigret is unsure as to whether to believe the story or not. After speaking with the inhabitants of the house, a middle-aged man and his mother, his policeman's sixth sense is aroused he begins to believe the story and starts an investigation. Review: It was interesting to read this book so shortly after having watched the same story unfold in an epis...

Title: Maigret in Exile Original French title: La Maison du juge . Translator: Eileen Ellenbogen Series detective: Inspector Maigret No. in series: 21 (of the novels. If the short stories are included: 42) Year of publication: 1942 Type of mystery: Murder, whodunnit Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Rural France, 1930’s? (The story was written during WW2, but since there is no mention of the German occupation of France, I’m guessing pre-war) Some themes: Love, sexual abuse, adultery, hate Story: Maigret has done something to displease his superiors and has been sent into a kind of exile in a small town on the northern coast of France where nothing ever happens. He has fallen into a boring routine which is broken when a woman from the next town arrives to tell him that a corpse can be seen through her neighbour’s upstairs window. Maigret goes to investigate, and finds the neighbour, a retired judge, trying to dispose of the corpse, apparently not to hide the cri...

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I had never read anything by French author Georges Simenon - who is still the most famous mystery writer of continental Europe - until I read the two following books, especially considering that a number of his books have been translated intro Icelandic. All in all I have read four of his romans policier . I am splitting the review in two and will discuss the author in the second one. It will be interesting to read these books, as they are translated by different translators and have been published under various English titles. Title: Maigret meets a Milord . Originally published in English as Lock 14 . Another alternative title (different translation) is The Crime at Lock 14 Original French title: Le Charretier de la ‘Providence’ Translator: Robert Baldick Series detective: Inspector Maigret No. in series: 2 (possibly). Several Maigret books were published in the same year and may have been written in a different order from the publication) Year...