Maigret and the Saturday Caller by Georges Simenon (Review)

Maigret and the Saturday Caller by Georges Simenon

Blurb

A man visits Inspector Jules Maigret at his home to tell him he wants to kill his wife and her lover. Although it is not an official case, Maigret is interested, particularly when the man later disappears. 

Review

My second Maigret book and yet again I was shocked by the amount of alcohol that Maigret consumed. I also loved how Maigret was convinced he had a cold brewing so he kept drinking lots of hot rum as a remedy to prevent it.

This book started off very mysteriously with the man nicknamed by Maigret’s colleagues as ‘the Saturday Caller’. This strange ‘Saturday Caller’ has been appearing at the police station like clock work every Saturday but the man never says anything and runs away before anyone speaks to him. However, one evening when Maigret walks through his door he finds ‘the Saturday Caller’ in his living room.

Maigret eventually manages to get the ‘Saturday Caller’ to tell his story, with the help of several glasses of plum brandy. The story unfurls that ‘the Saturday Caller’ wants to kill his wife and the wife’s lover who lives with them. I must admit I felt so sorry for this man as he tells his story to Maigret and you can tell that Maigret also feels the same. Even though there is no crime committed Maigret takes an interest in this man’s story and so agrees with him that they will talk on the phone everyday. 

As soon as Maigret goes back to work he starts his investigations into the non-existent crime and things start to unfold. Maigret does what he does best, he gathers every little scrap of information and builds the picture up. 

I really enjoyed this book and I loved seeing the little tricks that Maigret got his men to use to get the information required even if they were a little underhand. I also loved that the police have a new forensics man who helps them with some signatures and Maigret finds these modern techniques very interesting. I finished this book in less than 24 hours and loved it. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.

🐲🐲🐲🐲

Purchase Links

Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was a Belgian writer who published nearly 500 novels and many short stories. Simenon is best known as the creator of the Maigret stories.

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