Maigret and the Nahour Case

by Georges Simenon

Book Overview

"A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason." --John Le Carr

When a gambler is discovered dead in his home, a coincidence at the scene sends Inspector Maigret down a twisted path of secrets and lies in search of a killer

Maigret receives an urgent call in the middle of the night from a doctor friend who says he has just treated a wealthy woman for a suspicious gunshot wound. Not long...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0241304156
• ISBN13: 9780241304150
• Release Date: November 2019
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Unhappy people go trigger-happy

An elegantly dressed young man and woman show up at Dr. Pardon's office around one in the morning, after a dinner party with the Maigrets. The woman, who is very blonde and beautiful, has a gunshot wound. Dr. Pardon dresses the wound, but the couple leaves before he can get any information from them. Dr. Pardon calls his friend Maigret for advice on what to do. The next day an exhausted Maigret gets a case involving another gunshot wound, fatal this time. Felix Nahour, a wealthy Lebanese man, has been shot dead in his home. A picture begins to emerge of a drama involving more than one gun. The characters, as always, are interesting. The dead man is a professional gambler who succeeds more often than not at outwitting a variety of casinos based on theories of mathematics and probability. His wife is an ex-beauty queen. Maigret is certain that everyone in the household is lying, including the maid and secretary. It's as slippery a situation as the weather outside. The city is freezing and inundated with snow, and Parisians, including Maigret, are all losing their balance on the ice. Maigret doesn't much like this case, but it makes a pretty good story nonetheless.

FROM BACK COVER

An elegant blond holds the key to both a murder and its motive. When Maigret receives an urgent call from his friend Dr. Pardon he responds immediately, despite the late hour; it seems that the doctor had just treated an apparently wealthy woman for a suspicious gunshot wound, but before he could notify the authorities she disappeared with her companion. The doctor's story gains some perspective when the same woman turns up at the house on Avenue de Parc-Montsouris where Felix Nahour has just been found - shot to death. This is a masterful exploration of the twin passions of love and hate as they mingle in the shadowy mind of a criminal. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (February 13, 1903-September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French.