Maigret in New York (Inspector Maigret)

"Georges Simenon was the twentieth century's Balzac. But while Balzac spares us nothing of what he's learned, Simenon's genius is the art of reduction. He can teach you how to run a restaurant in a few sentences scattered throughout a novel and how to poison your spouse with even fewer lines." --Gary Indiana

Maigret, now fifty-six and retired as detective chief inspector, is crossing the Atlantic for the first time. But this isn't a vacation: his traveling companion is law student Jean Maura, who believes his father is in trouble. The US-based millionaire's recent letters betray a fear of imminent death, and he's been disbursing his fortune in an eccentric manner. Then, as Maigret disembarks in blustery rain at the Statue of Liberty, Jean vanishes.

Plunged alone into this brash city, the ex-inspector can only do what he does best: put his investigative mind to work. Moving between five-star hotels and dive bars, tailed by murderous gangsters and assisted by a mournful ex-clown and a mischievous FBI agent, Maigret unpins a long-buried grenade of secrets. A tautly electrifying thriller, this far-flung adventure for Maigret is also an eloquent portrait of mid-century New York, in all its dirt and glamour.