The Hotel Majestic by Simenon
The Hotel Majestic (1942)
by Georges Simenon, translated by David Watson
170 pages - Penguin Books
Inspector Maigret investigates a case in which the wife of a wealthy American industrialist was strangled and stowed away in the employee lockers of a large hotel in Paris. A day later, one of the workers in the hotel is killed in the exact same way. Several people fall under suspicion, including the husband of the woman, who was getting ready to divorce her and marry his children's governess, and a worker at the hotel who had a past connection with the murdered woman when she was a dancing girl in Cannes.
The story moved quickly and had some good atmosphere, especially in the scenes that take place in the basement of the large hotel, which really gives you a feeling of being 'backstage'. What didn't really work was the conclusion of the mystery, which came out of left field, and seemed quite disconnected with most of the book, which centred on finding out the back-stories of people who turned out to be innocent. I always prefer the kind of mystery where the reader has some chance of guessing who the guilty party is beforehand, but that was impossible here. Still, it was a pretty decent read, and I'm impressed by the way Simenon seems to have maintained this high quality of writing over an unbelievable number of books (the Maigret series alone is 75 novels, and an additional 28 stories!)
by Georges Simenon, translated by David Watson
170 pages - Penguin Books
Inspector Maigret investigates a case in which the wife of a wealthy American industrialist was strangled and stowed away in the employee lockers of a large hotel in Paris. A day later, one of the workers in the hotel is killed in the exact same way. Several people fall under suspicion, including the husband of the woman, who was getting ready to divorce her and marry his children's governess, and a worker at the hotel who had a past connection with the murdered woman when she was a dancing girl in Cannes.
The story moved quickly and had some good atmosphere, especially in the scenes that take place in the basement of the large hotel, which really gives you a feeling of being 'backstage'. What didn't really work was the conclusion of the mystery, which came out of left field, and seemed quite disconnected with most of the book, which centred on finding out the back-stories of people who turned out to be innocent. I always prefer the kind of mystery where the reader has some chance of guessing who the guilty party is beforehand, but that was impossible here. Still, it was a pretty decent read, and I'm impressed by the way Simenon seems to have maintained this high quality of writing over an unbelievable number of books (the Maigret series alone is 75 novels, and an additional 28 stories!)