Maigret's Holiday

I am nearly through a much longer and more dense biography, but a bit of light relief was Maigret’s Holiday. I had been reading the stories in sequence, but this one was bought as a birthday present due to the location. We had stayed in Les Sables-d’Olonne some years ago, but Maigret’s visit pre-dates the town’s more glitzy current iteration.

I read the book on two train journeys and a bit of time at home yesterday. These are handy books to fit into a pocket without adding too much bulk when travelling. As is Simenon’s pattern, Maigret sees beneath the motives of many of the characters he is questioning and understands the consequences before they are revealed to the reader. However, this doesn’t feel like a whodunnit. Rather, Simenon’s skill is to draw the reader into Maigret’s generally downbeat emotions.