The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon, 1931

 

This is Inspector Maigret #3.

About the author: Georges Joseph Christian Simenon ( 1903 –  1989) was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies. (wikipedia) 

Major Characters:

• M. Emile Gallet, the deceased; a.k.a. M. Clement
• Mme. Aurore Gallet, the widow
• M. Henry gallet, the son
• Eleonore Boursand, Henry's girlfriend
• Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire, neighbor to the inn
• M. Tardivon, innkeeper
• M. Jacob, a newspaper seller
• Inspector Jules Maigret
• Joseph Moers, a police technician

Locale: Saint Fargeau and Sancerre, France

Synopsis: Inspector Maigret is called to investigate the death of M. Emile Gallet, who was shot and stabbed in quick succession in an inn. Maigret informs the widow, Mme. Aurore Gallet. 

Maigret finds Gallet had been living a double life. He was pretending to still be employed as a commercial traveler (salesman) for a flatware company, when in fact he had not worked for them for many years. He had arranged for postcards to be sent home from his supposed sales stops to support this story to his wife, when in fact he was staying in a hotel in Sancerre under the name of M. Clement.

Maigret spends time in the crime scene room, trying to put himself into the character of Gallet. He finds the shot came in through the window. He interviews the innkeeper, M. Tardivon, and adjacent property owner, Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire. He calls in a police technician, Joseph Moers, to reconstruct some ashes found in the fireplace; and while he is doing so, two shots come in the window and injure him. 

Review: This was an interesting read as Maigret slowly ponders the character of M. Gallet, and tries to reconstruct his final day. I found it interesting how he arranged the clothes of the deceased on the floor and even stuck the knife into them to try to re-enact the murder. 

There is a long episode dealing with Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire which delves into the history of his name, and it  is not relevant to plot and stalls the story quite a bit.

I did feel cheated at the end. Without giving it away, I will just say a murderer is not brought to justice and the case is 'written off'. The murder method turned out to be a mechnical contrivance like something from John Dickson Carr.