It was June 27 when Inspector Maigret visited the y0ung gang leader Jean Lenoir at Sante prison. In the dark of the morning, Lenoir had seen a man dropping a body into the Canal Saint-Martin. Lenoir anonymously blackmailed him for 2 years, until he ran into him at the Two-Penny Bar. Self confident and claiming there was more to this story, he refuses to 'spill the beans'. His appeal is rejected.
Madame Maigret was awaiting her husband in Alsace for their annual family holiday. The air was warm and heavy when Maigret stops to buy a new hat from haberdasher Monsieur Feinstein, running into a troupe of holidaymakers buying costumes for a 'mock wedding' party at the Two-Penny Bar. Following them upstream the Seine at Morsang, he is handed a Pernod and easily absorbed into the group, mistaken for a new player - he can be the 'notary'. His new friend James introduces the middle class vacationers who unwind every summer weekend with bridge and dancing. Marcel Basso is having an affair with the 'mock bride', and Monsieur Feinstein is having an affair with Basso's wife Mado - indeed everyone dances with Mado, and if you dance with Mado you usually end up 'disappearing into the bushes'. Sailing tomorrow, and card games tonight, when suddenly commotion breaks out. Monsier Basso is found with a pistol in his hand over the dying body of Monsieur Feinstein. Stupified, Basso claims he didn't do it. The pistol belongs to Madame Feinstein.
The police arrest Monsieur Basso, but somehow he escapes and is now at large; then, Madame Basso and her son disappear with a bankroll of 300,000 francs. Someone in the group must be assisting them.
Why was Monsieur Feinstein killed? What of the innocent Lenoir in Sante Prison? and who dumped the body into the Canal Saint-Martin?
This Maigret mystery is quite convoluted, exposing few clues for the reader - or, is it simply that Basso found over the dead man is guilty? Maigret continually puts off travel to Alsace and his wife, as the local police conduct the main investigation, however, events swirl independent of Maigret, and he must must keep up or be overtaken by them.
Previously published as The Bar On The Seine, this was written in 1932, yet remains timeless and engrossing. Easy available as a book, eBook, and audiobook.
1932 / Tradeback / 154 pages
Commenti