‘Maigret’s Holiday’ by Georges Simenon

(Translated by Ros Schwartz in 2016)
Published by Penquin Classics,
4 February 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-241-78822-6 (PB)
Originally published 1948.

Maigret is on holiday in Les Sables d’Olonne, a seaside resort and port on the western coast of France, but his enjoyment has been derailed by his wife’s sudden, serious illness. Madame Maigret has survived the urgent operation to remove her appendix and is now recovering in the local hospital. For the last few days, Maigret has phoned at the same time every morning to enquire about his wife’s progress, and visits her for precisely thirty minutes at the same time every afternoon. He finds the hospital very claustrophobic and regimented, and he feels uncomfortable in the presence of the imperturbable nuns, and has the feeling that he and his wife are losing their identity. This is fuelled by the nuns’ habit of referring to Madame Maigret as ‘our dear patient’ and addressing him as Monsieur Six, the number of her hospital room. With his holiday plans destroyed, Maigret has settled into a rigid, alcohol-heavy routine, repeating his actions at the same regulated time each day. His apathy is shaken when he discovers in his pocket a note that reads: ‘For pity’s sake, ask to see the patient in room 15.’ Maigret considers it to be too late to follow up on this on the evening he discovers it, especially as he is reasonably sure that the person who put the note in his pocket is one of the nuns who escort him through the hospital corridors to visit his wife. However, the next day, when he visits his wife, he discovers that she is upset because the patient in room fifteen has died.

Maigret has no official jurisdiction to investigate the death and there is no reason, other than the anonymous note, to show that the death was anything but accidental, however he is famous enough that the none of the local police officers would feel comfortable about complaining if he interfered. He soon establishes that the dead woman was Hélène Godreau, the nineteen-year-old sister-in-law of a prominent local citizen, the distinguished neurologist, Doctor Bellamy. She had been injured when she fell from Bellamy’s car when the car door accidentally opened. Maigret has already seen Bellamy, whom he has watched playing bridge in a café with some equally distinguished colleagues. Maigret noticed Bellamy because he is the only player who always pauses the game to make a phone call, and Maigret learns that he phones his home to check on his wife, Odette, who he adores to the point of obsession. Odette Bellamy is the dead girl’s elder sister, whom everyone describes as an outstandingly beautiful woman. When Maigret approaches Bellamy he is remarkably forthcoming and invites Maigret to his home, although Maigret does not see Odette, whom Bellamy claims is ill. However, he does catch a glimpse of a young, working-class girl who is slipping away from Odette’s room. Maigret tries to identify and track down the girl, impelled by the conviction that death and danger are moving nearer with every passing hour and certain that it is essential he acts before further disaster strikes but, as a stranger in an unfamiliar town, with none of his usual team to back him up, his chances of success are limited.

Maigret’s Holiday was first published in French in 1948, and the book has the heaviness and foreboding atmosphere of a country that was still struggling to recover from the ravages of the Second World War. At the beginning of the book, his wife’s illness has thrown Maigret off balance at a point when he was already out of routine because of his holiday. However, when a crime requires investigation and tragedy stalks the small holiday town,Maigret moves back into action and rediscovers his usual competence and investigative skill. Maigret’s Holiday is a classic read from a great author and it is still remarkably engaging today.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium in 1903 and died in 1989. At sixteen he began work as a journalist on the Gazette de Liège. He moved to Paris in 1922 and became a prolific writer of popular fiction, working under a number of pseudonyms. In 1931 he published the first of the novels featuring Maigret, his most famous and enduring creation. He wrote 75 books in the Maigret series.  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies.  

www.carolwestron.com