Not the best crime thriller I've ever read, but it is the first Maigret story and the character has yet to be developed. It seems to evoke the unstable France of the late 20s and seems to signal the great upheavals that were soon to come, but somehow it remains unconvincing. The character of Pietr and his brother, Hans, are possible but improbable and their history which is recounted in curious circumstances in the last few pages is simply not credible. An explanation in terms of brothers both loving the same woman, a distinctly minor character and one with neither colour nor form, simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The fact that Maigret is complicit in the death of his adversary didn't cut it with me, for Maigret to be so grossly negligent spolit it for me.
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