The Bar on the Seine by Simenon

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The Bar on the Seine (1931)
by Georges Simenon, translated by David Watson
154 pages - Penguin Books

"They say it's good to talk. That's just more fiction. The only thing that could help would be to start your life again from the beginning, right from the cradle." (pg.150)

Inspector Maigret of the Paris Police goes to see a criminal who is condemned to be executed, and the man lets slip that he had been blackmailing a man after witnessing the dumping of a body into a river. Maigret doesn't get a name, but he does get the location where the murderer often goes, a small bar in the suburbs of Paris where people from the city regularly spend their weekends. So Maigret investigates, an investigation that becomes more urgent when another person is shot dead.

Georges Simenon wrote a copious amount of stories featuring Maigret, as well as some other non-Maigret books that were somewhat less in the mystery genre. This is my first experience with Simenon and I quite enjoyed it; it's very much what you would hope for a mystery novel from the 30's to be like. The writing style isn't too wordy or too sparse, and it has a dark and cynical flavour, while still having an appreciation for the good things in life and small simple pleasures. And it's short enough that you can finish it in a couple of sittings. I think I'll give another Maigret mystery a read, and then maybe try out one of the stand-alone books.