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Title: The Judges House
Subtitle: Inspector Maigret, Book 22
Author: Georges Simenon
Narrator: Gareth Armstrong
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-15-15
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 25 votes
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher's Summary:
Exiled from Paris, Maigret discovers some disturbing secrets in a sleepy coastal town in this new translation.
A short, sprightly man appeared in the doorway, looked left and right, and went back into the passage. A moment later, the improbable happened. The little man reappeared, bent over, clinging to a long mass that he now started dragging through the mud. It must have been heavy. After four metres, he stopped to catch his breath. The front door of the house had been left open. The sea was still 20 or 30 metres away.
This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret in Exile.
Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
Critic Reviews:
"Compelling, remorseless, brilliant." (John Gray)
"One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.... Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories." (Guardian)
"A supreme writer...unforgettable vividness." (Independent)
Members Reviews:
You would not want this nosy pair for neighbors!
Old Didine and her retired husband spend hours spying on their neighbor the judge. Finally it pays off! They spot a dead man on the floor of the judge's house. Didine rushes off to fetch Inspector Maigret.
Maigret has been exiled to this dull coastal town full of mussel farmers due to some unnamed infraction. He's dying of boredom, and a murder case comes as a veritable gift from heaven. Maigret hastens to Didine's house, and sure enough, next door the judge is dragging a man's body down to the water...
There are many delicious moments in this little novel: Maigret's guilty enjoyment of the judge's cozy sitting room and fine brandy, although the judge may be a murderer; old Didine's spiteful spouting of scandal about her neighbor; Maigret's loathing of his vulgar assistant who stinks of brilliantine...
A high point of the plot is Maigret's interrogation of two young mussel farmers. No one knows where he's going with his questions. One minute he's kind and sympathetic, the next minute he's putting on a fit of fury while angrily guzzling wine. This is the bear-like Maigret at his trickiest and most unpredictable.
I love Simenon's style, his ability to convey atmosphere in a few terse sentences, his internal dialog that breaks off so suggestively. The Judge's House (first published in 1942) is a little gem, rich in quirky characters and subtle humor.
A Maigret interrogation -- otherwise known as "The Singing Session"
Penguin UK is in the midst of issuing new translations of all seventy-five of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels, one per month. THE JUDGE'S HOUSE was originally published in 1942; in its earlier English translation it was titled "Maigret in Exile". Reading it was sufficiently entertaining and sufficiently literary that I probably will indulge myself with a few others from the new Penguin series.
Detective Chief Inspector Jules Maigret has been exiled from the Police Judiciaire in Paris for unexplained reasons.
