Another good one. I was a little bummed at his depiction of homosexuals in this book, but I do understand 1) it was 1950 and 2) he is generally pretty liberal and thoughtful in these books. Hopefully some of the language was simply because it was the characters way of thinking about his. ( )

This is the third of the five Maigret books published in 1951 that I have read. Maigret is up to his neck in sleaze and seems to be quite enjoying it. The novel starts with Arlette a striptease dancer stumbling into a police station in Montmartre Paris at 5 am claiming that the countess is going to be murdered. She is drunk and fairly incoherent and really only gets the time of day because one of the police detectives is an admirer. Later that day Arlette has been murdered and Maigret is called in to examine the crime scene. He immediately takes charge and launches an enquiry to discover who she meant by the countess.

Picratt's is the name of the small nightclub where Arlette performed and that is where Maigret heads for, to interview the owner and the other artists. He finds a club that is at the end of the line, meaning that people looking for entertainment in that pert of Paris end up there, when there is no other place to go. The owner Fred manages it with the help of his wife Rose and Maigret soon rules them out of the investigation, but reading through the notes of Arlette's interview he is certain that there is a connection between the club and the murders. Maigret spends most of his time interviewing witnesses at his Headquarters or ensconced in Picratts where he can always get another drink and watch the show. Georges Simenon's story takes on the usual procedure of Maigret skilfully breaking down suspects in the interview room, handing them over to Sergeant Torrence when he wants them roughed up. However a feature of this novel is the workings of the small nightclub, sleazy it might be, but it is a business like any other. There is a telephone inside the club and so Maigret finds it convenable to sequester himself inside while his team and the local police trudge around the wet wintry streets of Paris.

There are some good backstory's to the main murder enquiry and it is all over after 150 pages when Maigret finally rouses himself from his chair in the night club. 3.5 stars. ( )

Un opus qui aurait pu aussi s’intituler "Chasse à l’homme à Montmartre" ou "Maigret au striptease". Hélas, il aurait pu tout aussi bien titrer "Sale époque pour les homos" ou "Ici, on aime pas les toxicos". Oui, pas terrible ! Alors que d’habitude Maigret ne juge pas avec une écoute généralement bienveillante, ici, c’est pas vraiment ça. Et c’est désagréable !

Un tome malheureux qui ne passera pas aux filtres du wokisme. Témoignage d’une époque ( )

Una ballarina de cabaret denuncia la imminència d'un crim i ningú no se la creu. Un cas del detectiu Maigret. el primer que llegeixo i m'ha agradat força. ( )

Nadie en la sede de la Policía Judicial da crédito al testimonio de Arlette, bailarina de un local de striptease en Pigalle que acude a la comisaría a las cuatro y media de la madrugada, borracha, asegurando haber oído a un tal Oscar confesar su intención de asesinar a una condesa. El caso sólo llega a oídos de Maigret cuando, poco después de la inesperada aparición de Arlette en la comisaría, se halla su cuerpo sin vida y, horas más tarde, el de una condesa: ambas han sido estranguladas en sus domicilios. Instalado en el club de alterne Picratt’s donde trabajaba la bailarina, Maigret observa e interroga a los personajes nocturnos que pueblan los bajos fondos de París para reconstruir el vínculo que unía a las dos mujeres estranguladas con el misterioso Oscar, y así descubrir al asesino. Una nueva trama vibrante en que Maigret saca a la luz las pasiones humanas más lúgubres.