MAIGRET NOVELS BY GEORGES SIMENON 
'Símenon created one of
the great moral detectives... a master of the slow unfolding of the criminal
mind.'
John Mortimer
' A writer who, more than any other crime
novelist, combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal.'
P.D. James
' A truly wonderful writer...marvellously readable -lucid, simple, absolutely
in tune with the world he creates.'
Muriel Spark
Penguin
is proud to welcome one of the great geniuses of the psychological crime genre
to the Modem Classics list. Georges Simenon was the most successful author in
the world in the 1960s. His books have been translated into more that 20 languages,
with over 40 filmed for television and cinema. These new editions are being
published to coincide with the centenary year of Georges Simenon's birth. With
a startling understanding of the criminal mind and a strong belief in moral
justice, Inspector Maigret is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all
time.
Yet
Simenon himself is as famous as the character he created. A great self-publicist,
he surrounded his life in myths. He was renowned for his prodigious sexual appetite,
but did he really make love to 10,000 women? He wrote more than 200 books under
his own name and a further 200 under a series of pseudonyms - each one completed
in under seven days, often on the back of envelopes. To celebrate the life of
Simenon in his centenary year, The Man Who Wasn't Maigret, Patrick Mamham's
highly acclaimed biography, is being specially reissued to tie-in with publication.
The
Summer of Simenon will include a dedicated Simenon month of Maigret adaptations
and film noir at the National
Film Theatre in July, and Penguin Modem Classics publishing six classic
Maigret mysteries m June, whilst in December Penguin will publish a further
six Maigret titles in the Modem Classics series: Maigret and the Ghost, Maigret
in Court, The Friend of Madame Maigret, The Hotel Majestic, The Madman of Bergerac,
and The Man on The Bench.
Georges
Simenon 
Yellow Dog
Pbk published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 0141187344
The small French town of Concarneau is a summer resort. In winter it becomes the
deserted, rainswept scene for a series of murder attempts that attract the interest
of Maigret. While his assistant Leroy uses "science" and "deductions" to trace
the murderer, Maigret's instincts unerringly guide him to the real killer past
a labyrinth of fascinating characters: a paranoid failed medical doctor turned
real-estate shark; a passive, working class waitress whose heart secretly burns
a torch of passion; an aristocratic politician who pressures Maigret to "make
some arrests"; and a snarling stray dog that knows the murderer's real identity.
Georges Simenon My
Friend Maigret
Pbk published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 0141187328
Maigret is going about his work in rainy Paris, followed around by Inspector Pyke who has come from Scotland Yard to study the famous French detective's methods. Routine is disturbed when Maigret receives a telephone call from the island of Porquerolles off the Mediterranean coast. A small-time crook has been murdered, the night after he had fervently declared his friendship with Maigret in front of a large group of the island's inhabitants. Maigret and Inspector Pyke leave the greyness of Paris for the sunshine of Porquerolles where Simenon creates a wonderfully evocative atmosphere of the square and cafe, the brilliant sea, the humidity in the air and the life and individuality of each of the inhabitants on the small island.
Georges Simenon Lock
14. Pbk
published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 014118728X
Robert Baldick (Translator)
One rainy night, a canal worker stumbles across the strangled body of Mary Lampson
in a stable near Lock 14. The dead woman's husband seems unmoved by her death
and is curt and unhelpful when Maigret interviews him aboard his yacht. But gradually
Maigret is able to piece together their story - a sordid tale of whisky-fuelled
orgies and nomadic life on the canals. Can the answer to this crime be found aboard
the yacht? Or is the murderer among the bargees, carters and lock-keepers who
work the canal? In Lock 14, Simenon plunges Maigret into the unfamiliar canal
world of shabby bars and shadowy towpaths, drawing together the strands of a tragic
case of lost identity.
Georges Simenon Inspector
Cadaver
Pbk published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 0141187255
Paul Bailey (Introduction), Helen Thomson
(Translator)
Asked to help a friend's brother-in-law who is accused of murdering the lover
of his daughter, Maigret arrives in a small French town and finds himself plunged
into an atmosphere of animosity. He soon finds himself tangled up in a case that
may ruin the very people whom he has come to help. He also has to deal with an
old enemy - an ex-police officer nicknamed 'Inspector Cadaver' - who seems to
be doing everything in his power to obstruct Maigret's investigations.
Georges Simenon Bar
on the Seíne.
Pbk published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 0141187336
David Watson (Translator)
Michael Dibdin (Introduction)
Simenon wrote over 50 novels in the Maigret series, each providing the world-weary,
pipe-smoking detective with an interesting murder which he solves with an unusual
method of investigation, relying on experience, intuition and ruthlessness. Simenon
writes in a terse French, skillfully using few words to describe things seen or
felt. He is a matchless writer about France - both the France loved by tourists
and its seamy, brutal underside. THE BAR ON THE SEINE is a classic example of
his art.
Georges Simenon A
Man's Head
Pbk published June 2003 by Penguin at £6.99
ISBN: 0141187247
Patrick Marnham (Introduction),
Geoffrey Sainsbury (Translator)
Set in the in the atmospheric and squalid streets of Paris, Maigret sets out to
prove the innocence of a man condemned to death for a brutal murder. In another
one of Maigret's unconventional and audacious plans, he arranges the escape of
the condemned man in an attempt to prove his theory. The presumed murderer goes
on the run across Paris and its suburbs, dropping misleading clues along the way
and leading Maigret into the labyrinthine twists of the mystery. Maigret is in
for more than he bargained for, as he encounters rich American expatriates, dangerous
foreigners and their hidden motives.
New Books by Georges Simenon at Amazon.co.uk 
Penguin
Books is also delighted to be the first ever Literary
Sponsor of Crime Scene 2003, the National Film Theatre's Festival of crime
films and fiction which includes a special focus on Simenon's Inspector Maigret.
