Maigret at the Coroner's (Inspector Maigret) - by Georges Simenon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In the sweltering Arizona desert, Maigret can't help but investigate the death of a teenage girl--even if it means questioning the stories of five men in uniform.

Maigret is touring the United States, studying their methods, when he drops by a Tucson courtroom to watch a coroner's inquest. To his surprise, he is transfixed by the case. Seventeen-year-old Bessie Mitchell, out on a drunken night with five airmen, was run over by a train. None of the men's stories match--but who is lying, and why?

As the judge questions the witnesses, Maigret longs to leap up and ask the right questions. The story of this girl's death, he realizes, precisely illuminates why American values seem so out of kilter. A tense courtroom whodunnit, Maigret at the Coroner's is also a merciless x-ray of the postwar United States, with all its submerged angst and hypocrisies.

About the Author

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liège, Belgium. An intrepid traveler with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand--and not to judge--the human condition in all its shades. His books include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon.

Linda Coverdale is the award-winning translator of many French works and has been honored with the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to French literature.