Nine stories make up this delightful holiday-themed collection, each featuring Georges Simenon's famous detective, Jules Maigret. The first eight are short stories, and the ninth is a novella. They are:
- Maigret's Christmas —
- Seven Little Crosses in a Notebook —
- Maigret and the Surly Inspector —
- The Evidence of the Altar Boy —
- The Most Obstinate Customer in the World —
- Death of a Nobody —
- Sale by Auction —
- The Man in the Street —
- Maigret in Retirement. The second is especially interesting for a Maigret collection in that the Superintendent's name is never mentioned! Several are about Christmas. An otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold. Another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him. Many feature observant and resourceful children, frightened yet resolute, who bring out a paternal streak in the childless Maigret. The rapport between the inspector and these youthful heroes imparts a delightful freshness to this collection - a cornucopia for fans of Maigret and mysteries. Librarian's note #1: this is a collection of nine stories. Entries and reviews for each story including the title story, "Maigret's Christmas" can be found elsewhere on Goodreads by searching for "a Maigret short story." Librarian's note #2: the ninth story, "Maigret in Retirement", also published in English as "Maigret Gets Angry", is #26 in Penguin's recent collection of Maigret novels by Simenon (75 in total).
Author
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 fâche (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.
