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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Top setting, ich wünschte mir mehr Maigret-Abenteuer an der Riviera.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
medium-paced
The seedy side of town…
Maigret has been sent to Antibes to investigate the death of a man, William Brown. ‘No drama’ is the instruction given to Maigret – Brown had worked secretly for military intelligence during the war and the powers that be don’t want any scandal or excessive publicity over his death. It appears that in recent years Brown has been leading an unconventional life, living with a woman who was not his wife and the woman’s mother. But every month he disappeared from home for a few days, coming home drunk and with money in his pocket. Maigret soon discovers that he spent those missing days at a run-down bar in a seedy part of Cannes – the Liberty Bar. But why? And where did he get the money he brought home?
This one started out slowly and it took a while to grab my interest, but eventually I found it an absorbing set of character studies of the people connected to the Liberty Bar, and of Maigret himself, who, in this 17th book, seems to be falling into the excessive drinking that becomes such a feature as the series goes on. I haven’t read the one immediately preceding this, so I don’t know if this is the first acknowledgement of the problem, but here he is shown as battling the temptation to have just one more drink on a couple of occasions. In the later books, (those few I’ve read, anyway), he doesn’t seem to see his drinking as a problem, but in this one it is as if he recognises it as a weakness and is trying to fight it, though not with a great deal of vigour.
The setting is, as usual, one of the strengths of the book, here with a strong contrast between the sunny beaches and hotels frequented by the holidaying rich and the seedy backstreets of Cannes, where the poor and the disreputable hang out in shabby bars like the Liberty.
The non-wife and her mother are rather unpleasant characters, shown as being more interested in Brown’s money than in the man himself. They are suspected of the crime because they hid the body. They claim they did this for fear they would be suspected, which suggests a lack of intelligence – they clearly didn’t think that burying a body in a shallow grave in the garden would look suspicious at all! However, since his death leaves them without the money he gave them each month, Maigret finds it hard to see a motive for them to have killed him. So he turns his attention to the mysterious disappearances and the bar.
The Liberty Bar is owned by an elderly widow, Jaja, who caters to a few regular clientele left over from her husband’s time as owner, scraping just enough to supplement her small pension. She lives on the premises with Silvie, a young woman who works as a prostitute, and whom Brown seems to have taken under his wing in a paternal manner – Jaja refers to him as Silvie’s godfather. These two characters, Silvie and especially Jaja, are the most interesting in the book, complex and well drawn. Jaja is someone who opens her door to waifs and strays, and who sees the clientele of the bar almost as an extended family – a way for her to stave off the loneliness she feels in her widowhood. Silvie is more enigmatic – she seems to pass her life almost in a kind of stupor, perhaps using drink as a way to cope with the ugly life she leads. We see Maigret’s sympathies with the weak and the broken of this world, although he doesn’t allow those sympathies to get in the way of his dogged and sometimes bullying pursuit of the truth.
The story becomes gradually more complex as Maigret slowly finds out more about Brown’s background – where he came from and why he has ended up leading this empty, rather hedonistic life. I found the eventual solution quite moving, although Maigret irritated me again by acting like judge and jury – a thing that seems to happen often in these earlier books. I think the atmosphere of the seedy bar and the women who lived there will stay in my mind for some time, making this one of the good ones in this variable series.
Maigret has been sent to Antibes to investigate the death of a man, William Brown. ‘No drama’ is the instruction given to Maigret – Brown had worked secretly for military intelligence during the war and the powers that be don’t want any scandal or excessive publicity over his death. It appears that in recent years Brown has been leading an unconventional life, living with a woman who was not his wife and the woman’s mother. But every month he disappeared from home for a few days, coming home drunk and with money in his pocket. Maigret soon discovers that he spent those missing days at a run-down bar in a seedy part of Cannes – the Liberty Bar. But why? And where did he get the money he brought home?
This one started out slowly and it took a while to grab my interest, but eventually I found it an absorbing set of character studies of the people connected to the Liberty Bar, and of Maigret himself, who, in this 17th book, seems to be falling into the excessive drinking that becomes such a feature as the series goes on. I haven’t read the one immediately preceding this, so I don’t know if this is the first acknowledgement of the problem, but here he is shown as battling the temptation to have just one more drink on a couple of occasions. In the later books, (those few I’ve read, anyway), he doesn’t seem to see his drinking as a problem, but in this one it is as if he recognises it as a weakness and is trying to fight it, though not with a great deal of vigour.
The setting is, as usual, one of the strengths of the book, here with a strong contrast between the sunny beaches and hotels frequented by the holidaying rich and the seedy backstreets of Cannes, where the poor and the disreputable hang out in shabby bars like the Liberty.
The non-wife and her mother are rather unpleasant characters, shown as being more interested in Brown’s money than in the man himself. They are suspected of the crime because they hid the body. They claim they did this for fear they would be suspected, which suggests a lack of intelligence – they clearly didn’t think that burying a body in a shallow grave in the garden would look suspicious at all! However, since his death leaves them without the money he gave them each month, Maigret finds it hard to see a motive for them to have killed him. So he turns his attention to the mysterious disappearances and the bar.
The Liberty Bar is owned by an elderly widow, Jaja, who caters to a few regular clientele left over from her husband’s time as owner, scraping just enough to supplement her small pension. She lives on the premises with Silvie, a young woman who works as a prostitute, and whom Brown seems to have taken under his wing in a paternal manner – Jaja refers to him as Silvie’s godfather. These two characters, Silvie and especially Jaja, are the most interesting in the book, complex and well drawn. Jaja is someone who opens her door to waifs and strays, and who sees the clientele of the bar almost as an extended family – a way for her to stave off the loneliness she feels in her widowhood. Silvie is more enigmatic – she seems to pass her life almost in a kind of stupor, perhaps using drink as a way to cope with the ugly life she leads. We see Maigret’s sympathies with the weak and the broken of this world, although he doesn’t allow those sympathies to get in the way of his dogged and sometimes bullying pursuit of the truth.
The story becomes gradually more complex as Maigret slowly finds out more about Brown’s background – where he came from and why he has ended up leading this empty, rather hedonistic life. I found the eventual solution quite moving, although Maigret irritated me again by acting like judge and jury – a thing that seems to happen often in these earlier books. I think the atmosphere of the seedy bar and the women who lived there will stay in my mind for some time, making this one of the good ones in this variable series.
well.... that was a waste of my time today.... absolutely awful.... the dialogue.... the characters just don't match it feels spiky and glitchy with no flow or rhythm. I will now not ever want to read any of these books. dull dull dull.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
These books are excellent for a well-developed mystery, complete with atmosphere, contained within a book easily read in a single sitting. This time Maigret in visiting the French Riviera, but not the luxury locations. Interesting characters.
This one was over in a flash and a good read, with as always a memorable and very curious supporting cast.
In the end justice but not of a criminal kind but mortal. I quite enjoyed it and the change of scene to some harbour or Paris.
In the end justice but not of a criminal kind but mortal. I quite enjoyed it and the change of scene to some harbour or Paris.