Inspector Luckless (that would be Lognon) gets shot in the gut while on a stakeout he’d been conducting so discreetly none of his fellow officers even knew what he was up to. So as the Paris police department’s resident sad sack fights for life in hospital it’s up to Maigret to find out what went down on the Avenue Junot.
One way that you can expect a series like this to go after so long a run is for it to become sillier. There are a lot of familiar elements in this one – Janvier had been shot in Maigret Takes a Room, a nosy neighbour played a key role in The Judge’s House, the dirty deeds done behind the façade of a great house is a staple – but they get rolled together here into a whimsical plot involving forged artwork, gangsters, and another ill-matched couple.
“You’ll find it hard to believe me because you’re not a collector,” the collector says as he tried to explain himself to Maigret. To which the detective chief inspector replies “I collect people . . .” His readers may be tempted to add, “I collect books . . .” This is what it’s sort of come to by this point.
Alex Good 
How many left now?
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I think about a dozen, but I skipped a few on the way that I’d have to go back and do in order to be complete.
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That sounds like a Labour of unlove.
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Some of them have been great. And they’re all short and easy to read. So it hasn’t been all bad. These later books aren’t as good though.
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Sad sacks are not my favorite to read about.
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ps,
what’s with the time difference on your different blogs?
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Lognon is a recurring character who is always having a rough time of it.
What time difference?
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Some of your blogs show eastern standard time (5am) while this one seems to be set on UK time (9 or 10 am)
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Oh. That’s weird. I hadn’t noticed. Don’t know why it does that.
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Ahhh, ok, so it wasn’t on purpose. That’s all good then.
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