75 Inspector Maigret books in order

The first novel which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.

Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He… show more.

The second book in the new Penguin Maigret series: Georges Simenon's devastating tale of misfortune, betrayal and the weakness of family ties, in a new translation by Anthea Bell.

Instead of the detail filling itself in and becoming clearer, it seemed to escape him. The face of the man in… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

A first ink drawing showed a hanged man swinging from a gallows on which perched an enormous crow. And there were at least twenty other etchings and pen or pencil sketches that had the same leitmotif of hanging.
On the edge of a forest: a… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

What was the woman doing here? In a stable, wearing pearl earrings, her stylish bracelet and white buckskin shoes! She must have been alive when she got there because the crime had been committed after ten in the evening.
But how? And why? And no… show more.

The fifth book in the new Penguin Maigret series: Georges Simenon's gripping tale of small town suspicion and revenge, in Linda Asher's timeless translation.

There was an exaggerated humility about her. Her cowed eyes, her way of gliding noiselessly about without bumping into things, of quivering nervously at the slight… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'She came forward, the outlines of her figure blurred in the half-light. She came forward like a film star, or rather like the ideal woman in an adolescent's dream. 'I gather you wish to talk to me, Inspector . . . but first of all… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife . . . 'Everyone here earns his living.… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

It was indeed a photograph, a picture of a woman. But the face was completely hidden, scribbled all over in red ink. Someone had tried to obliterate the head, someone very angry. The pen had bitten into the paper. There were… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

'Let's be clear that it's not your professionalism which I question. If you understand nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, it's because from the very start you've been working with facts which had been falsified.'

Maigret sets out to prove the… show more.

The city of Simenon's youth comes to life in this new translation of this disturbing novel set in Liege, book ten in the new Penguin Maigret series.

In the darkness, the main room is as vast as a cathedral. A great empty space. Some warmth is still seeps from the… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

'A radiant late afternoon. The sunshine almost as thick as syrup in the quiet streets of the Left Bank . . .
there are days like this, when ordinary life seems heightened, when the people walking down the street, the
trams… show more.

A new translation of this gripping domestic tragedy, set in Simenon's very own neighbourhood.

One by one the lighted windows went dark. The silhouette of the dead man could still be seen through the frosted glass like a Chinese shadow puppet. A taxi pulled up. It wasn't the public prosecutor… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

Maigret savoured the sensations of his youth again: the cold, stinging eyes, frozen fingertips, an aftertaste of coffee. Then, stepping inside the church, a blast of heat, soft light; the smell of candles and incense.

The last time Maigret went home… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

She wasn't an ordinary supplicant. She didn't lower her eyes. There was nothing humble about her bearing. She spoke frankly, looking straight ahead, as if to claim what was rightfully hers.

'If you don't agree to look at our case, my… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

He recalled his travelling companion's agitated sleep - was it really sleep? - his sighs, and his sobbing. Then the two dangling legs, the patent-leather shoes and hand-knitted socks . . . An insipid face. Glazed eyes. And Maigret was not… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

A man picked up for wandering in obvious distress among the cars and buses on the Grands Boulevards. Questioned in French, he remains mute . . . A madman? In Maigret's office, he is searched. His suit is new, his underwear… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

It had a smell of holidays. The previous evening, in Cannes harbour, with the setting sun, had also had the smell of holidays, especially the Ardena, whose owner swaggered in front of two girls with gorgeous figures..

Dazzled at first by… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves
Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realised that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. ... What really counted was the lock,… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

Maigret shrugged his shoulders, buried his hands in his pockets and went off without answering. He had just spent one of the most wretched days in his life. For hours, in his corner he had felt old and feeble, without idea… show more.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

Poor Cecile! And yet she was still young. Maigret had seen her papers: barely twenty-eight years old. But it would be difficult to look more like an old maid, to move less gracefully, in spite of the care she took to… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'Try to imagine a guest, a wealthy woman, staying at the Majestic with her husband, her son, a nurse and a governess . . . In a suite that costs more than a thousand francs a day . . . At six in the morning,… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

He went out, lit his pipe and walked slowly to the harbour. He could hear scurrying footsteps behind him. The sea was becoming swollen. The beams of the lighthouses joined in the sky. The moon had just risen and the judge's house emerged from the… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

A small, thin man, rather dull to look at, neither young nor old, exuding the stale smell of a bachelor who does not look after himself. He pulls his fingers and cracks his knuckles and tells his tale the way a schoolboy recites his lesson.… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

In everyone's eyes, even the old ladies hiding behind their quivering curtains, even the kids just now who had turned to stare after they had passed him, he was the intruder, the undesirable. No, worse, he was fundamentally untrustworthy, some stranger who had just turned… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

In his mind's eye he would see that slim figure in the striking clothes, those wide eyes the colour of forget-me-not, the pert nose and especially the hat, that giddy, crimson bonnet perched on the top of her head with a bronze-green feather shaped like… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

All that was still unclear, for sure. Ernest Malik had been right when he had looked at Maigret with a smile that was a mixture of sarcasm and contempt. This wasn't a case for him. He was out of his depth. This world was unfamiliar… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

What was it about him that had struck Maigret so forcefully? . . . Little John had cold eyes! . . . Four or five times in his life, he had met people with cold eyes, those eyes that can stare at you without establishing… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

Maigret plunges into the murky Parisian underworld in book twenty-nine of the new Penguin Maigret series.

'That shoeless foot looked incongruous lying on the pavement next to another foot encased in a shoe made of black kid leather. It was naked, private . . .… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

The profession he had always yearned for did not actually exist ... he imagined a cross between a doctor and a priest, a man capable of understanding another's destiny at first glance.

The very first investigation by eager young police secretary Jules Maigret leads him… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'The palm trees around the railway station were motionless, fixed in a Saharan sun . . . It really felt as if they were stepping into another world, and they were embarrassed to be entering it in the dark clothes that had been suited to… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

The FBI man was convinced, in short, that Maigret was a big shot in his own country but that here, in the United States, he was incapable of figuring out anything . . .well, Maigret happened to believe that men and their passions are the… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'He had realized that it was her eyes as much as her vivacity that made her look so young. They were of a blue that was paler than the September sky over the sea and still had an expression of surprise, of wonderment'

When a… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

When he got to his door, he was surprised not to hear any noise in the kitchen and not to smell any food. He went in, crossed the dining room, where the table had not been laid, and at last saw Madame Maigret, in her… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

I can still see Simenon coming into my office the next day, pleased with himself, displaying even more self-confidence, if possible, than before, but nevertheless with a touch of anxiety in his eyes.'

Maigret sets the record straight and tells the story of his own… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'He opened the door for her and watched her walk away down the huge corridor, then hesitate at the top of the stairs. Heads turned as she passed. You sensed she came from a different world, the world of the night, and there was something… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'What he thought he had discovered, in place of the joyful candour that she usually displayed, was an irony which was neither less cheerful nor less childish, but which troubled him ... He wondered now if his exultation wasn't down to the fact that she… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'When he had set them to work, Maigret had had a merry, almost fierce glint in his eye. He had set them loose on the house like a pack of hounds on the trail of a scent, encouraging them not with his voice, but by… show more.

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville

'You're a good soul, inspector, and when you're up against the second-rate criminals you get here in Paris, you're a crack policeman. But this business isn't for you. These guys play rough and they may hurt you. Just drop it! What concern is it… show more.

'One of the great psychological novelists of this century' Independent

They ran into cloud cover as they approached the French coast and flew up above it. Through a break in the clouds a little later, Maigret caught a lucky glimpse of the sea, sparkling as if covered in silvery scales,… show more.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'At what point in the day could the note have been slipped into his pocket, his left breast pocket?
It was an ordinary sheet of glazed squared paper, probably torn out of an exercise book. The words were written in pencil, in a regular handwriting… show more.