MAIGRET AND THE TOY VILLAGE

by Georges Simenon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 1979

A mini-Maigret that's all charm and just-about-no mystery. Jules ""Peg Leg"" Lapie, a crusty old ex-seaman (he was a bookkeeper who got shanghaied), is found murdered at his wee house in the ""toy village"" of suburban Jeanneville Estates. The primary suspect: his jittery musician nephew, who is himself shot while being sympathetically apprehended by Maigret in a seedy district of Paris. But the focus of the investigation is on Peg Leg's young housekeeper--the womanly, childlike, taciturn, mendacious, vulnerable, brash, lovable, and deluded F≤licie, whom Maigret consoles, cajoles, threatens, protects, and falls a little bit in love with. Eventually F≤licie does spill all her secrets (basically innocent), and the real villain is caught; but it's Simenon's comedy of pathos, in another jaunty translation by Eileen Ellenbogen, that makes this trifle worth trifling with.

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION