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A new translation of Simenons tense novel, book fifteen in the new Penguin Maigret series.He recalled his travelling companions 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 surprised to see a grey beard eating into his cheeks. A distressed passenger leaps off a night train and vanishes into the woods.Maigret, on his way to a well-earned break in the Dordogne, is soon plunged into the pursuit of a madman, hiding amongst the seemingly respectable citizens of Bergerac. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations.Compelling, remorseless, brilliant. - John Gray One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century .



About the Author

Georges Simenon

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 - 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life. Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed. He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain. During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946) , Maigret à New York (1947) , Maigret se fche (1947) ) .Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957) , as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945) , Pedigree (1948) , Mémoires intimes (1981) .In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award. In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian) . In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.



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