Simenon was a machine cranking out these Maigret titles, and I have to think that all the time the chief inspector spends thinking about his retirement – two years away in this book, as he’s fifty-three – reflects an authorial burn-out as well. But then Maigret was ready to retire as early as Lock No. 1, which was still early going in the series, so there’s that.
Another incompatible couple. An older man who is a bit of a loser marries a younger woman who is “petite and very curvaceous, with a come-hither look in her eye, a suggestive pout and seductive manner.” In short, she’s trouble. In these mysteries the women either love too much or not at all, and bubble-headed Ginette falls into the latter category.
This is a weaker effort, as the crime is brutal and uninteresting, the characters dull and undistinguished, and the solution just a matter of following people around.
Alex Good 
What with Maigret and Chan you are a glutton for punishment!
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Maigret is usually pretty good. But it’s just that by this point I think Simenon was starting to burn out. I think he wrote 70+ of these and there’s only so much he could do with the form.
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I wonder if Rex Stout would have too but he just died instead. BTW new posts on my other blogs.
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Just saw it. Looks like an interesting book on a bit of history that doesn’t get much coverage.
Yeah, I don’t think any author could have kept up Simenon’s pace and performed at a consistently high level. I don’t know many people who would want to read all of Erle Stanley Gardner.
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