Maigret and the Minister


Book Description

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When a public tragedy threatens to expose a scandal within the Paris government, the Minister of Public Works calls in a favor to Maigret A public project has collapsed and resulted in the death of 128 children after a report warning officials about the unsafe structure was disregarded. Now, that report has resurfaced, along with allegations that several politicians and contractors involved with the project may have suppressed its findings to avoid a scandal. Maigret must enter the shifty world of politics, dodged by members of the security police wherever he goes. In an unfamiliar world of decadent diplomatic officials, fanatic followers of political parties, and suspicious staff in politicians’ entourages, Maigret grimly sticks to what he knows best: finding the perpetrators of criminal acts.




Maigret and the Calame Report


Book Description

The Inspector must enter the unsavory world of politics to help a conscientious politician. Maigret is secretly summoned by a distraught cabinet minister who needs help in recovering a document - the Calame report, an engineering study that warned that a government-funded children's sanitarium was of unstable design. The study was hushed up, the report stolen, and the disaster made reality - with 128 children killed in the building's collapse. Now Maigret must plumb the depths of government corruption to find the thief and the report - and let the compromised government fall where it may.




Maigret and the Man on the Bench


Book Description

Mondays are nobody's favorite day, but when Maigret's week begins with a corpse found stabbed to death in a Parisian alley, the Inspector immediately sees a flaw. Murders are rarely committed on Mondays. That clue, along with the victim's strange recent behavior, leads Maigret to the cause of this nasty crime-and reveals the tale of a deadly marriage.




Maigret's Failure


Book Description

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville Conflict rather than harmony probably reigned in eight out of ten of the still magnificent houses that surrounded the park. But he had rarely had the opportunity to breath such a strained atmosphere as the one between these walls. Everything seemed fake, grating, starting with the lodge of the concierge-cum-manservant, who was neither a concierge nor a manservant, despite his striped waistcoat, but a former poacher, a murderer turned guard dog. When a self-made man appeals to Maigret for protection at his lavish home, a years-old grudge from the past resurfaces and the inspector finds himself questioning his own motives. 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian




Maigret's Pickpocket


Book Description

A pickpocket helps himself to Maigret's wallet and which then leads him to a complicated case of murder. Police procedural.




Maigret Sets a Trap


Book Description

Robert Philip Hanssen was one of the FBI's most trusted agents, a 25 year veteran, devout Catholic and devoted suburban family man. But as he rose up the ranks, he was leading another life as a devilishly clever spy for the Russian government, selling America's most closely guarded national security secrets. Now, Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist Vise untangles Hanssen's web of deceit to tell the story of how he avoided detection for decades while becoming the most dangerous double agent in FBI history--and how the FBI eventually brought him down.




The Madman of Bergerac


Book Description

After being wounded while following a man who had mysteriously jumped off a train, Inspector Maigret becomes caught up in an investigtion in a provincial French town terrorized by a maniacal murderer. Original.




The Translator as Writer


Book Description

Over the last two decades, interest in translation around the world has increased beyond any predictions. International bestseller lists now contain large numbers of translated works, and writers from Latin America, Africa, India and China have joined the lists of eminent, bestselling European writers and those from the global English-speaking world. Despite this, translators tend to be invisible, as are the processes they follow and the strategies they employ when translating. The Translator as Writer bridges the divide between those who study translation and those who produce translations, through essays written by well-known translators talking about their own work as distinctive creative literary practice. The book emphasises this creativity, arguing that translators are effectively writers, or rewriters who produce works that can be read and enjoyed by an entirely new audience. The aim of the book is to give a proper prominence to the role of translators and in so doing to move attention back to the act of translating, away from more abstract speculation about what translation might involve.




Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories


Book Description

Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories, personally chosen by Andrea Camilleri. It follows Inspector Montalbano from his very first case in Vigàta, in which he stumbles upon a young girl lurking outside a courthouse with a pistol in her handbag. When she is taken in for questioning and won't utter a single word, Montalbano must find another way to learn who she is trying to kill, and why . . . Other cases include a missing woman who has run away from the love of her life; an old married couple who appear to be rehearsing their suicides; and a crime so dark there's only one person the inspector can call for help. With twists and turns aplenty, these short stories have all the wit, mystery and culinary gusto that Camilleri's fans have come to love him for.




Maigret's Christmas


Book Description

Nine short stories make up this delightful holiday-themed collection, each featuring Georges Simenon's famous detective, Jules Maigret. Christmas mysteries abound: an otherwise sensible little girl insists that she has seen Father Christmas, a statement alarming to her neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Maigret. Then, a choirboy helps the inspector solve a crime while he lies in bed with a cold; another boy, pursued by a criminal, ingeniously leaves a trail to help Maigret track him. Many of these stories feature observant and resourceful children, frightened yet resolute, who bring out a paternal streak in the childless Maigret. The rapport between the inspector and these youthful heroes imparts a delightful freshness to this holiday collection- a cornucopia for fans of Maigret and mysteries.