Maigret's Holiday by Georges SimenonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Probably starting a series with the 28th volume is not a good idea. Inspector Maigret is obviously a detective in the same line as Penny's Gamache and James' Dalgliesh, though Simenon was writing at a much earlier time period. Maybe if I'd started earlier in this series I'd be more impressed with it. As things stood, I only chose this book because I'm part a reading group. On the basis of this book, I have no inclination to read more about Maigret.
I found the murderer to be frightfully obvious, merely requiring threshing out the details of where and how the deed was accomplished. Maigret doesn't have charm nor does he easily think of life from any point of view but his own. Figuring out a female outlook on life seems to stretch him much more than I would have expected of an experienced investigator. Some of this is no doubt due to the position of men in society when this novel was written, when men didn't feel much need consider about “female" issues such as shopping or female friends. I liked Maigret even less when he got bent out of shape when women (even if they were nuns) weren't quite deferential enough for his liking. He redeemed himself somewhat by being concerned for Lucile's family, who were not well off and had no defenses against the vicissitudes of life.
Not sorry to have read this, mostly because I can eliminate the rest of these books from my TBR. It is overburdened enough already.
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