A review by furfff
Maigret Travels by Georges Simenon

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.