16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
beware of duplication, Aug 17 2007
By William H. Abbott "reader" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Friend Of Madame Maigret (Paperback)
The book is good, but it was published years ago as "Madame Maigret's Own Case." So beware of duplication.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jules Gets Help From Madame, July 31 2010
By Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Friend Of Madame Maigret (Paperback)
If you don't know Maigret and you like detective stories, then you are in for a treat - or about 76 treats because that's how many Maigret novels the prolific Georges Simenon published. (I take this number from an excellent essay in the Times Literary Supplement about Simenon by Paul Theroux called "Georges Simenon, the existential hack". The essay is available online.) As with many of the Maigret stories, this one is also published under another name, Madame Maigret's Own Case. Most, if not all, of the books in this new series were previously published under a different title.
Maigret is a seasoned French chief inspector of detectives with an eye for human foibles and a distinct humanism about his policing. Some lists include this title as one of the best of Maigret. Personally, I haven't found much to choose between them - as long as they are primarily set in Paris. Don't be put off by the title (either title). Madame Maigret's role, while key, is also collateral. She provides some crucial information, but Jules really does the work along with his crew of Lucas, Janvier and a very young La Pointe.
Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The human noir comedy, Mar 30 2010
By David Van Elslande - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Friend Of Madame Maigret (Paperback)
The book - like many others - contains everything which was promised in Simenon's biography by Assouline: a short crime novel more focused on the power of human instinct than on the crime itself, on the grey monotony of life than on a complex plot (easily untangled), on the quiet disappointment of human nature than on any unexpected deception. Closer to Dostoievsky than A.Conan Doyle, probably because Simenon wrote crime novels where - in the end - the crime didn't matter as much as the reasons for it.