This 13th Inspector Maigret mystery was also released as Maigret Goes Home, Maigret On Home Ground, and Maigret and The Countess. Every Maigret mystery has been unique in tone and theme, but this was the first that didn't captivate me. Perhaps because Maigret does little to solve the case besides be present - a case of murder no one could be legally punished for.
Inspector Maigret returns to the town of his childhood, where his father was for 30 years the estate manager of the Saint-Fiacre chateau, after an anonymous note was delivered to the Police Judiciare, Paris:
"I wish to inform you that a crime will be committed at the church of Saint-Fiacre during the first mass of All Souls' Day".
Marie Tatin was once known as 'the little cross-eyed girl', now grown up and running the only rooming house. She doesn't recognize Maigret. The dark morning of early winter, a few dead leaves still clinging to the branches of the poplars, finds fifteen people in the church for first mass. The Countess of Saint-Fiacre, tall and elegant as the heroine of a novel, takes her seat in the private pew. As the service ends, she puts her hands over her face. She is dead.
At the chateau, it is rumoured her personal companion Monsieur Jean provides more than secretarial work. He lives well on her money, as does her neer-do-well son Maurice de Saint-Fiacre, who resents Jean. Maurice is in dire need of 40,000Fr and must find it somewhere. The chateau mortgaged and the farms sold, there is no more money for either of them, the Countess unaware she consistently bounced cheques. Everyone, including the parish priest, is silently convinced the son is guilty of causing her death.
Maigret meets with the new estate manager Gautier, entering the home he grew up in. He visits the grave of his father, and remembers when Saint-Fiacre was the epitome of perfection in a child's eyes.
As the villagers file past her bedside in respect, Maurice de Saint-Fiacre gathers the men involved in the dining room, demanding that 'before midnight his mother's murderer will be dead', placing a revolver in the center of the table.
Maigret is present for the denouement, although this is an unpunishable murder. Like the previous Maigret mysteries, this presents a unique puzzle to solve. Quite a feat when Simenon wrote several a year. I found this one less involving, more of a psychological study without the anticipated momentum. However, every Simenon novel I have read is worthy and recommended.
This was filmed in France as part of a three picture series starring Jean Gabin (Maigret Sets A Trap 1958 / Maigret and The Saint-Fiacre Affair 1959 / Maigret Sees Red 1963).
1932 / Tradeback / 154 pages
Eden, I have read a couple of Maigrets but have not enjoyed them much but I do plan to read the new translations, perhaps that would give me a better grip on them.