Georges Simenon

For forty years Charles Alavoine has sleepwalked through his life. Growing up as a good boy in the grip of a domineering mother, he trains as a doctor, marries, opens a medical practice in a quiet country town, and settles into an existence of impeccable bourgeois conformity. And yet at unguarded moments this model family man is haunted by a sense of emptiness and futility.
Then, one night, laden with Christmas presents, he meets Martine. It is...

Inspector Maigret investigates a crime that hasn't yet been committed when a tense, fearful man comes to Maigret's home and announces that he intends to kill his wife and her lover. Maigret feels uneasy as he begins to investigate a crime that hasn't yet happened; what he uncovers in the bistros of Montmartre is a most peculiar menage a trois.

When a corpse turns up, shot by Maigret's stolen gun, his search for the killer takes him to London to investigate one murder - and prevent another.

Maigret uncovers some troubling family politics in this new translation, book thirty-three of the new Penguin Maigret series. 'He had realized that it was her eyes as much as her vivacity that made her look so young. They were of a blue that was paler than the September sky over the sea and still had an expression of surprise, of wonderment' When a charming elderly widow appeals to him for help, Inspector Maigret travels to a seaside village in Normandy...

When the son of a wealthy businessman fears for his father's life, Maigret is plucked from retirement to visit New York on an unlikely quest. The twenty-seventh book in the new Penguin Marigret series. Aged 56 and in his first year of retirement at Meung-sur-Loire, Maigret is surprised with a visit by Jean, the son of wealthy New York businessman John Maura. With the assistance of his aging lawyer, Jean convinces Maigret to accompany him to New York,...