Maigret-The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien.

I’ve been wanting to write this for a very long time, just couldn’t find the time.. Well, here you go. 

Most stories that are ever written have a certain mood or a hue that adheres throughout the story and is simpatico with the ending. For example: MORIARTY by Anthony Horowitz has a certain melancholic feel to it throughout the story. And this book is certainly one that follows the aforementioned principle. The Hanged Man of Saint Pholien is a book that has the ever present inkling of impending doom which it substantiates with the ending.

SPOILER ALERT!
The following content will / may / may not contain precious information about said book which should not be learnt by reading a review. ( So to be clear, should be learnt by reading the book).PS;-(When did ‘learnt’ become a wrong word?).
This SPOILER ALERT was brought to you by Gordon Watson.

This book as I said before has the setting of Frankenstein perhaps, and an ending to befit it. Not many stories start with the premise that the protagonist is indeed the cause of the crime. But here it does. Maigret replaces a man’s suitcase out of sheer intuition and the man upon realising this, commits suicide. It is a rare moment in time when I get taken aback. This perhaps came close. But the story, as usual to a Simenon one, is very domestic and revolves around a few main characters among whom hides the killer. Albeit the indirect one.

An attempt on Maigret’s life, for which I must commend the attempt-er, as it takes quite some amount of  bravery to try to push a man of Maigret’s size into the river, a painting of a hanged man, a depressed young fool, and a group of teenagers studying the Arts, thinking of themselves as the new age Renaissance poets. (Or was it Romantic?). All this makes for a very compelling reading, albeit a depressing and morbid one.

Personally, for me, this book perhaps IS the best Maigret that I have read till now. I’ll have to revisit some of the old ones, but it has indeed reinvigorated my belief in detective novels, which had taken a turn for the worse after reading a few books that truly were utterly boring. So, my parting words…. “So, what’s new around the shop?”.

GordonW