 Maigret Loses His Temper (1963)
My vague yet deliberate fascination with Georges Simenon has led me to read four of his novels … mainly because I liked the covers and they were a dollar each at my favorite used book store. Most likely, the phase will give way to another fleeting fixation, perhaps on birdsong LPs, Norwegian movies of the 70s, or some other esoteric and useless diversion. All in the name of knowing as little as I can about as much as possible. In this one, Chief Superintendent Maigret investigates the murder of a nightclub owner who conducted business with spotless integrity and therefore had no enemies. The killer, it turns out, is a defense lawyer who was extorting his clients with promises of getting light sentences provided they give him money to pay off the police: Maigret in particular. Hence Maigret "losing his temper." However, like most things in Simenon's world, the emotional explosion is brief, not intense, and forgotten within seconds. Just another case solved, and another novel added to the ol' bibliography. This one is notably lazy even by Simenon's standards. At one point, when Maigret is questioning a suspect and needs a piece of key information from one of his subordinate detectives, that detective is, conveniently, in the next room. Simenon was a master of not complicating things for himself. And he made a lot of money doing this. Perhaps I admire him because I hope to garner the same income with approximately the same lack of actual work. Do you think I can make millions doing lazy reviews of lazily-written books about lazy characters?
Review by Hamish Sandwich |