Review: MAIGRET IN VICHY, Georges Simenon

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• first published 1968,
• this edition published by Penguin Random House UK Classics 2025
• translated by Ros Schwartz 2019 
• ISBN 978-0-241-78818-9
• 171 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Inspector Maigret and his wife take a much-needed rest cure in the spa town of Vichy, where they quickly become used to the leisurely pace of life. But when a woman who they regularly pass by on their daily strolls is murdered, Maigret can't help but offer his assistance to the local investigation – no matter where it leads.

My Take

Maigret and his wife have slipped into a quiet routine in Vichy, taking the waters and walking for hours every day.  Maigret isn't really ill, just tired. On the recommendation of his doctor, they will be in Vichy for 3 weeks, taking the cure. They take delight in observing others who are doing the same.

And then a woman they see regularly is murdered. The detective in charge of the investigation is someone Maigret trained and he jumps at the chance to participate although he delights in not being in charge. He wants to know the woman's background and is even more curious when he meets her sister. The tale he eventually uncovers is a sordid one indeed: one of great duplicity. 

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.4, MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD

4.5, MAIGRET & THE HEADLESS CORPSE

4.3, PIETR THE LATVIAN

THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET

4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME

4.2, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE TRAINS GO BY

4.3, THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE

4.3, LOCK NO 1. Maigret #18

4.0, MAIGRET IN NEW YORK

4.2, A MAN'S HEAD 

4.4, THE CAT 

4.4, THE TRAIN 

4.5, THE LITTLE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL 

Review: OUR HOLIDAY, Louise Candlish

• 
  This title read as an e-book on Borrow Box through my local library
  
• Format: eBook
• Imprint: HQ
• ISBN: 9780008614638
• Pages: 384
• Publication Date: 4th July 2024
• A Richard and Judy Book Club Pick
• longlisted for the 2025 Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award  

Synopsis (publisher)

Charlotte and Perry long for summers at Cliff View, their gorgeous holiday home overlooking the turquoise waters of Pine Ridge. And now that city friends Amy and Linus have bought a property nearby, they plan lazy weeks of sun, sea and sipping rosé on Charlotte’s summerhouse veranda.

But there’s trouble in paradise…

A rising tide of resentment towards second-home owners is heading their way and small acts of criminal damage are escalating into something more menacing. By the end of the summer, families and friendships will be torn apart and Pine Ridge will be known for more than its sun-drenched beaches.

It will be known for murder…

My Take

Set in an English coastal town where many locals are in temporary housing such as caravans, while there are many holiday rentals which are only taken up during August. A local campaign against second-home owners NJIA (Not Just In August) are particularly incensed by in-comers who are adding extra cottages to their land, and are conducting a campaign against them. There are several side plots which add to the story.

Highly recommended. 

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

5.0, THE OTHER PASSENGER

4.7, OUR HOUSE

4.8, THE ONLY SUSPECT

4.6, THE HEIGHTS  

Review: THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING FRENCHMAN, H. L. Marsay

• This edition read as an e-book on Kindle (AmazonAU)
• 
  ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CXP7YRDP
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tule Publishing, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 13 August 2024
  
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1962707633
• Book 3 of 4: The Lady in Blue Mysteries 

Synopsis  (AmazonAU)

Even in war, your enemies can linger too close to home…

While war and revolution continue to ravage Europe, Dorothy Peto embraces her new role at Scotland Yard as she and several detectives investigate a series of jewel thefts. Then Dorothy is tasked with assisting the inscrutable Inspector Derwent and the charming Colonel Lamarchant to find a missing French aristocrat. Their enquiries take them to a country house in Yorkshire, that’s been converted to a hospital for wounded soldiers and was the last place the Frenchman visited. However, the more questions they ask, the more questions they have.

When the body of a man suspected of being the marquis is discovered, the investigative team returns to London, but the dead man is a stranger. Dorothy speculates that the death, the jewel thefts and the missing Frenchman may be connected. She finds herself tangled in a web of conscientious objectors, Irish republicans and communist agitators, and not everyone is who they appear to be.

My Take

I must confess that I haven't read earlier titles in this series but this one seems to work well enough as a stand-alone. However while the story was interesting, it didn't feel particularly enriched by the historical period in which it is set.

It comes with this disclaimer: Inspired by the remarkable life of Dorothy Peto, the Metropolitan Police’s first female superintendent. 

My rating: 4.4

I have also read

4.4, A LONG SHADOW -#1

4.4, A VIKING SHADOW - #2 

4.4, A GHOSTLY SHADOW -#3

4.4, A ROMAN SHADOW -#4

4.5, A FORGOTTEN SHADOW #5

4.5, A CHRISTMAS SHADOW #6

Review: THE LITTLE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL, Georges Simenon

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• first published 1956
• translated from French 2021 by Sian Reynolds
• ISBN 978-0-241-48706-8
• 186 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The poignant story of an outsider falsely accused of murder from the celebrated author of the Maigret series

She was beautiful, full of vitality, and he was sixteen years older, a dusty, lonely bookseller whose only passion in life was collecting stamps.

Jonas is used to his young wife disappearing. Everyone in the town knows that she goes off with other men. This time, however, he tells a small lie to protect her, saying she is visiting a school friend. It is a lie, however, that eats into him like an illness, provoking hostility and resentment against this timid little Russian-Jewish bookseller, who always thought he had been accepted. As suspicion mounts, his true, terrifying isolation is revealed. 

My Take

Jonas had always thought of them as friends, but this time when his young wife disappears, the villagers turn on him. His background is that he is a Russian-Jew, whose family fled the Revolution, and he had almost forgotten that and thought they had too. But when young Gina leaves him they remember everything that makes him different and he becomes an outsider.

This is a sad story for there is no way back for Jonas as Simenon explores his final path. 

I read this to discuss with my U3A Crime Fiction Reading Group. Our focus this month is Georges Simenon. 

My rating: 4.5 

I've also read

4.4, MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD

4.5, MAIGRET & THE HEADLESS CORPSE

4.3, PIETR THE LATVIAN

THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET

4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME

4.2, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE TRAINS GO BY

4.3, THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE

4.3, LOCK NO 1. Maigret #18

4.0, MAIGRET IN NEW YORK

4.2, A MAN'S HEAD 

4.4, THE CAT 

4.4, THE TRAIN 

Review: THE TRAIN, Georges Simenon

• 
  Read as an e-book on Libby per my local library
  
• first published in 1961
• e-Publisher ‏ : ‎ Melville House Publishing, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 6 October 2011
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 154 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1935554468
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935554462

Synopsis (AmazonAU)

Against all expectations Marcel Féron has made a “normal” life in a bucolic French suburb in the Ardennes. But on May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, this timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the “Fate” that he has secretly awaited. 

Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark- haired girl, whose accent is “neither Belgian nor German,” and who “seemed foreign to everything around her.” As the mystery of Anna’s identity is gradually revealed, Marcel leaps from the heights of an exhilarating freedom to the depths of a terrifying responsibility—one that will lead him to a blood-chilling choice. 

My Take

Marcel Feron has poor eyesight, and has had tuberculosis, so he is not required for war service. He is married, his wife is heavily pregnant and they have a 5 year old daughter. As the German tanks approach the French village where he lives, he and his neighbours flee to the local railway station with no idea where the evacuation trains will take them or what the future holds for them.  When they board a train the women and children are put at the front in the first class carriages and the men are allocated to the rear carriages, which are mainly cattle trucks. The train meanders through France and Belgium and eventually is separated into two sections and Marcel has no idea where his wife and daughter have gone.

However a young woman and he pair up in the rear carriages and become an "item" in ways that Marcel could not have envisaged when his journey began.  

This is really a novella although the story is "complete". It explores what happened during the evacuations at the beginning of World War II, the uncertainty that civilians felt, and the way people behaved once they were "released" from their normal lives. At one stage German planes strafe the railway lines and stations and some civilians are killed. Marcel will survive this episode of his life, and indeed locate his wife and child, and resume his life in the Ardennes. For those of us who have only ever read about the impact of war, this is a rare glimpse of "there but for the Grace of God ...."

I have read this for my U3A Crime Fiction Reading group where our author this month is Georges Simenon. 

My rating: 4.4

I have also read

4.4, MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD

4.5, MAIGRET & THE HEADLESS CORPSE

4.3, PIETR THE LATVIAN

THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET

4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME

4.2, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE TRAINS GO BY

4.3, THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE

4.3, LOCK NO 1. Maigret #18

4.0, MAIGRET IN NEW YORK

4.2, A MAN'S HEAD

 4.4, THE CAT 

Review: THE MISSING CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER, Ragnar Jonasson

• 
  this edition published by Penguin Random House UK 2026
  
• English translation by Victoria Cribbs
• ISBN 978-0-241-71111-8
• 314 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press.

As he interviews the people closest to her – a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge – he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of a very unexpected life, before someone else goes missing . . .

My Take

A central theme to this novel is why people disappear. Helgi occupies an office once occupied by Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir whom we met in THE DARKNESS  when she had been forced into early retirement and then disappeared. No explanation has ever been given for her disappearance and occasionally Helgi thinks of her.

However the case he is working on at present is the disappearance of a popular crime fiction novelist who has apparently ceased writing after publishing 10 very popular novels over a period of twenty years. He learns from her friends that she has done disappearing acts before.

Helgi has other problems on his mind too - a new girlfriend is being stalked by one he walked on after she had become violent towards him.  

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.4, THE MIST

4.5, WHITE OUT 

4.5, WINTERKILL 

4.6, THE MIST

4.6, RUPTURE 

4.7, THE DARKNESS 

4.7, REYKJAVIK - with Katrin Jakobsdottir

4.6, OUTSIDE  

Review: THE GAMBLER, J. P. Pomare

• 
  This edition from my local library
  
• published by Hachette Australia 2026
• ISBN 978-0-7336-5308-7
• 330 pages
• #2 in Vince Reid PI series  

Synopsis (publisher)

A highly charged crime-thriller - launching an electrifying new series featuring PI Vince Reid - by multi-award-winning prince of the twist, J.P. Pomare.

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing.

But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life?

My Take

An intriguing thriller. The original investigation is concerned with why a young woman is shot dead at a political rally. Was the target the female politician? Did the shooter miss? Vince Reid begins by looking at the victim and her friends. And then he watches the CCTV footage of the shooting and realises something.

There is an interesting side story about scams and how they work, how you influence what victims believe.

Recommended. 

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.6, IN THE CLEARING

4.8, CALL ME EVIE

4.8, TELL ME LIES 

4.7, THE WRONG WOMAN

4.7, HOME BEFORE NIGHT 

4.8, 17 YEARS LATER