Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Maigret and the Old People
Georges Simenon
Review by Priscilla Comen
Maigret and the Old People
Georges Simenon
Review by Priscilla Comen
Maigret and the Old People, by Georges Simenon, is the wonderful story of Detective Maigret and how he solves another crime for the Paris bureau. He and his wife have had dinner with friends and the friend has given him an article in a journal about his profession and how psychology helps in its solutions.
Maigret goes to his office by bus as he has for twenty-five years, puffs on his pipe, and goes through his files. The chief directs him to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he takes Janvier with him. A young and an old woman are waiting for him. The old woman cannot hear well, as she cocks her head to listen. She is the maidservant to Count St. Hilaire, and has worked there forty-six years. This morning she found him dead in his office. He’d been shot several times, but it was the first shot that killed him. The ministry man who is there as well, says it was not suicide and doesn’t want the press involved. The Count was Catholic and suicides cannot be buried in sacred ground.
Maigret questions the seventy-three year old maid. She lives in a small room behind the kitchen. Instead of calling the Count’s nephew, M. Mazeron, an antique dealer, she went to the police. Maigret goes to the nephew’s antique shop. He is surprised to see the nephew too, is an older man. Although he has a wife and two daughters, he lives alone and rarely visits his uncle, the Count.
Maigret needs to get used to new people he’s just met, just as with a pair of new shoes or a suit. The Count had lived in his house since birth. He had not gone to bed, was still in his clothes and velvet dressing gown. Maigret finds letters tied with thread and labeled with dates in the desk drawer. He sends the maid out of the room. The nephew says the letters are all from Isi, the Isabelle of V___, Princess of V____. His uncle had called her Isi. The nephew says they weren’t lovers, but had known one another since she was a little girl. In 1912, she had married the Prince of V. though she hadn’t loved him. It was an arrangement between the two families. The Count didn’t have enough money to marry her, but they had written each other for over fifty years. Her husband knew about this. Although they lived five minutes apart, Isis and the Count never saw each other. Maigret muses that this affair involves only old people. Isi’s husband had died recently after a fall from a horse. Isi and the Count had planned to marry after her husband died. But now, the Count has been murdered after waiting fifty years for her.
Maigret thinks: there had been no break-in, Hilaire had opened the door, not to a woman as he was still in his dressing gown, there was only one glass on the table so he had not offered a drink to his guest. Maigret sits in the easy chair in the office and goes through the letters. All begin with “Dear friend.” Because her husband must have an heir, Isi goes to bed with him, but after a son, Philip, is born, she never goes to him again. She worries, in her letters, that the Count will fall in love with another woman as he travels to Cuba and Buenos Aires as ambassador. The maid had gone with him, looking after him. Maigret wonders why the maid had not phoned Isi after finding the body.
Maigret goes to the notary’s office. He’s another old man, even older than the Count and not in good shape. M. Aubonnet was the notary for both the Count and Isi’s husband. There was no problem because both were “men of honour.” Maigret is amused by this ancient phrase. The notary tells him that both men had the same mistress, a pretty young woman, from a revue. Each had his day with her, and neither knew this. Maigret feels as if he’s in a past world. He goes to see the nephew’s wife and she tells him she left because the nephew never smiled.
Maigret goes to see Isi. She has aged, but the Count had thought of her as always being twenty years old. She hadn’t changed for him, nor he for her. She assures Maigret that the maid, Jacquette, was devoted to him and had been his mistress in the early years. The murderer had picked up all the cartridges and eliminated the fingerprints everywhere.
Maigret goes to another room to speak with Isi’s son Phillipe. He seems surprised by the questions, but answers honestly. He says he had been with a woman at the champs Elysee after dinner with his family. Each of Maigret’s deputies has made contact with persons of interest. Phillipe had indeed been with a woman, the antique dealer had gone to the notary about the will, and then to an auction of old war gear like helmets and weapons from Napoleon’s time.
Maigret asks one of his assistants to use a paraffin test on the old maid. It shows that she had fired a gun in the last forty-eight hours. When he questions her, she sits quietly in a chair after he arrests her. Maigret wants to like Jacquette even though she’s driving him crazy. Jacquette asks to speak to an old priest and they are in a room together for a long time.
Who killed the old Count? What was the motive? Find this one of many of Simonon’s mysteries in the mystery room of your Mendocino Community Library.
Maigret goes to his office by bus as he has for twenty-five years, puffs on his pipe, and goes through his files. The chief directs him to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he takes Janvier with him. A young and an old woman are waiting for him. The old woman cannot hear well, as she cocks her head to listen. She is the maidservant to Count St. Hilaire, and has worked there forty-six years. This morning she found him dead in his office. He’d been shot several times, but it was the first shot that killed him. The ministry man who is there as well, says it was not suicide and doesn’t want the press involved. The Count was Catholic and suicides cannot be buried in sacred ground.
Maigret questions the seventy-three year old maid. She lives in a small room behind the kitchen. Instead of calling the Count’s nephew, M. Mazeron, an antique dealer, she went to the police. Maigret goes to the nephew’s antique shop. He is surprised to see the nephew too, is an older man. Although he has a wife and two daughters, he lives alone and rarely visits his uncle, the Count.
Maigret needs to get used to new people he’s just met, just as with a pair of new shoes or a suit. The Count had lived in his house since birth. He had not gone to bed, was still in his clothes and velvet dressing gown. Maigret finds letters tied with thread and labeled with dates in the desk drawer. He sends the maid out of the room. The nephew says the letters are all from Isi, the Isabelle of V___, Princess of V____. His uncle had called her Isi. The nephew says they weren’t lovers, but had known one another since she was a little girl. In 1912, she had married the Prince of V. though she hadn’t loved him. It was an arrangement between the two families. The Count didn’t have enough money to marry her, but they had written each other for over fifty years. Her husband knew about this. Although they lived five minutes apart, Isis and the Count never saw each other. Maigret muses that this affair involves only old people. Isi’s husband had died recently after a fall from a horse. Isi and the Count had planned to marry after her husband died. But now, the Count has been murdered after waiting fifty years for her.
Maigret thinks: there had been no break-in, Hilaire had opened the door, not to a woman as he was still in his dressing gown, there was only one glass on the table so he had not offered a drink to his guest. Maigret sits in the easy chair in the office and goes through the letters. All begin with “Dear friend.” Because her husband must have an heir, Isi goes to bed with him, but after a son, Philip, is born, she never goes to him again. She worries, in her letters, that the Count will fall in love with another woman as he travels to Cuba and Buenos Aires as ambassador. The maid had gone with him, looking after him. Maigret wonders why the maid had not phoned Isi after finding the body.
Maigret goes to the notary’s office. He’s another old man, even older than the Count and not in good shape. M. Aubonnet was the notary for both the Count and Isi’s husband. There was no problem because both were “men of honour.” Maigret is amused by this ancient phrase. The notary tells him that both men had the same mistress, a pretty young woman, from a revue. Each had his day with her, and neither knew this. Maigret feels as if he’s in a past world. He goes to see the nephew’s wife and she tells him she left because the nephew never smiled.
Maigret goes to see Isi. She has aged, but the Count had thought of her as always being twenty years old. She hadn’t changed for him, nor he for her. She assures Maigret that the maid, Jacquette, was devoted to him and had been his mistress in the early years. The murderer had picked up all the cartridges and eliminated the fingerprints everywhere.
Maigret goes to another room to speak with Isi’s son Phillipe. He seems surprised by the questions, but answers honestly. He says he had been with a woman at the champs Elysee after dinner with his family. Each of Maigret’s deputies has made contact with persons of interest. Phillipe had indeed been with a woman, the antique dealer had gone to the notary about the will, and then to an auction of old war gear like helmets and weapons from Napoleon’s time.
Maigret asks one of his assistants to use a paraffin test on the old maid. It shows that she had fired a gun in the last forty-eight hours. When he questions her, she sits quietly in a chair after he arrests her. Maigret wants to like Jacquette even though she’s driving him crazy. Jacquette asks to speak to an old priest and they are in a room together for a long time.
Who killed the old Count? What was the motive? Find this one of many of Simonon’s mysteries in the mystery room of your Mendocino Community Library.