The Flemish House

By Georges Simenon

Book Overview

"A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason." --John Le Carr

A chilling Inspector Maigret mystery set on the Belgian border

"She wasn't an ordinary supplicant. She didn't lower her eyes. There was nothing humble about her bearing. She spoke frankly, looking straight ahead, as if to claim what was rightfully hers. 'If you don't agree to look at our case, my parents and I will be lost, and it will be the most hateful legal error...'"

Maigret is asked to the windswept, rainy border town of Givet by a young woman desperate to clear her family of murder. But their well-kept shop, the sleepy community and its raging river all hide their own mysteries.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141394773
• ISBN13: 9780141394770
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Maigret is becalmed

The Peeters family is accused of murdering a young woman who had a child by the son of the family, Joseph Peeters. They ask Maigret to help clear them of suspicion. He arrives at the border town of Givet in a totally unofficial capacity. The phlegmatic manners of the Flemish family, and the perfect calm and cleanliness of their home and shop, seem to mesmerize Maigret. Will he penetrate their secrets - and the motives of the townspeople who hate them? Maigret does some unexpected things in this novel, including warding off an attacker, a rare display of physical fitness! Simenon had some Flemish ancestry himself. It's interesting to ponder that in relation to the peculiar atmosphere in the Peeters household.