Reviews

Maigret Travels by Georges Simenon

br1's review against another edition

challenging funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

8797999's review against another edition

4.0

Another enjoyable read which sees Maigret going to Nice, Lausanne and back to Paris after a witness and rubbing shoulders with the upper echelons of society.

A solid Maigret novel.

matteottt's review against another edition

4.0

Maigret si mette in viaggio (Maigret voyage) esibisce, per l'ennesima volta nell'imponente numero delle opere dedicate da Simenon al commissario Maigret, la maestria del suo autore nel mettere sulla scena in ogni sua opera, illuminati dalla luce dello scavo psicologico e del ritratto puntuale e realistico, i più disparati tipi di personaggi. In questo romanzo, tuttavia, l'elemento più importante che ritorna ciclicamente è la contrapposizione tra il mondo piccolo-borghese del commissario e l'ambiente del lusso, della futilità degli affaristi e dei nobili con cui egli si trova ad entrare in contatto: è un senso di disagio, di non appartenenza che influenza dalle prime battute l'umore e l'atteggiamento di chi indaga, calato in situazioni che in prima battuta non riesce a comprendere. Lo scioglimento della vicenda e la fine del percorso narrativo coincidono tuttavia con un'apertura di Maigret all'empatia nei confronti di quelli che in fondo sono uomini quanto lui, costellati di debolezze e preoccupazioni, ancorati a futili abitudini e rituali per preservare intatto il loro mondo fatto di vuoti e solitudini - l'obiettivo di Maigret e di Simenon allo stesso tempo è infatti quello di "dimenticare le differenze superficiali che esistono tra gli individui, di grattare via la vernice per scoprire, sotto la diversità delle apparenze, l'uomo messo a nudo" (p.31).

siria's review against another edition

3.0

When an English multi-millionaire is found dead in the bathtub of his luxurious Parisian hotel suite, Inspector Maigret is tasked with finding out whodunnit. Well, not so much whodunnit since the cast of characters is small and the culprit is obvious from the get-go, but the whydunnit, and how to prove the whydunnit.

There's a certain amount of charm to Maigret and the Millionaires just from the glimpse it provides at what seems now like an impossibly vanished world—where you might carry the Pan-Am timetable with you just in case you decided to pop onto the next jet plane to Nice with a ticket bought via cheque at the airport—captured at a point where jet-setting celebrities were just starting to become a thing. I found the ending a bit abrupt and unconvincing, but overall entertaining enough.

bookwomble's review

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

ssejig's review against another edition

3.0

I got this book because I really liked the Maigret radio series. This was an interesting book. the author didn't leave very many clues for the reader. Now, I was pretty sleepy while reading this so I may have missed some things. Also, the author is French so it may lead to some confusion on my part. It was really more about class differences and how the millionaires react when one of their own is murdered and another one of their own is suspected.
Colonel David Ward has died in his bathtub on the same night that his known mistress, the Countess Paverini, tries to commit suicide. Both have had a number of spouses so the jealousies could have been legion.

chyde's review

4.0

It was enjoyable even though I might have already read it. It would be a keeper if my 2 year old hadn't ripped out some of the pages. It's about a crime committed in the uber, uber wealthy international community which Simenon doesn't write about often in his Maigret books, or at least not in the ones that I have read.

furfff's review

5.0

Loved this one. Maybe because there are only a few books left in the series for me to read, but for me it contains the perfect measure of many aspects that make Simenon and this character and this series so great: Janvier, Lucas and Lapointe falling over backwards to help their chief, and yet not always fully understanding (or maybe even feeling sufficiently appreciated by) him; Maigret hitting that maximum of "sick animal" confusion before epiphany hits; and finally perhaps most resonantly, the juxtaposition of Maigret's firm belief that human behavior is ultimately as calculable as, well, a calculation, and yet that conviction occasionally being upset, here as it is thrown down an unleapable chasm of class and privilege. Perhaps, Maigret seems to wonder as the novel progresses, there is a level of money and power so profound that it can subvert even his skills. There's an almost throwaway line in the last quarter of the book I loved: "Not sure where to put himself, he prowled again, sometimes on the guest side, sometimes on the staff side." This is the opening of a fascinating sequence where he traipses up and down the service stairwell, through the "hidden" side of the hotel scene of the crime. There is more than one level, more than one divide, in the tiers and terraces of power, and Maigret himself occasionally realizes the views afforded him by his elevation. (The mythos of the formidable inspector is particularly, humorously, brought out late in the novel by a streetwalker's explosive laughter as she is caught red-handed trying to surreptitiously hide the inner workings of her block.) I realize this is a bit of a rambly review, but more than anything I'm trying to convince my future self why this should be a top candidate for a Maigret re-read years from now.