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149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
Maigret had his lunch, alone, on the terrace of the hotel "Au Vieux Garçon". At about two o'clock the shopkeeper came to collect Maigret. - excerpt from The Two-Penny Bar
He had handled hundreds of cases in the course of his career, and he knew very well that the great majority of them could be divided into two distinct phases.Never before have I seen Simenon divulge his methods so clearly. And yet that is exactly what happens.
The first consisted in the detective's making contact with a new atmosphere, with people of whose existence he had been unaware a few hours before, people who made a little world of their own, and whose little world had been shaken by the irruption of some drama.
Enter the detective, a stranger if not an enemy, encountering hostile or suspicious glances on every hand...
This of course was the fascinating phase, at least for Maigret. The groping, probing phase, often without any real point of departure. A dozen different ways look equally hopeful -- or hopeless. A dozen different people, and any one of them may be guilty. Nothing to be done about it. Only to wait, to turn round and round, keeping one's nose to the ground....
And then suddenly a scent is picked up. Something real, something definite. And with that the second phase begins. The clutch is slipped in, the machinery starts turning, and the investigation proper, relentless and methodical, begins. Each step brings fresh facts to light. The detective is no longer alone with his problem. Others are there too, hosts of others, and time is now on his side.