The Late Monsieur Gallet

Oct 10, 2024 3:16 PM

Author:Georges Simenon,Anthea Bell

The second book in the new Penguin Maigret series: Georges Simenon's devastating tale of misfortune, betrayal and the weakness of family ties, in a new translation by Anthea Bell.

Instead of the detail filling itself in and becoming clearer, it seemed to escape him. The face of the man in the ill-fitting coat just misted up so that it hardly looked human. In theory this mental portrait was good enough, but now it was replaced by fleeting images which should have added up to one and the same man but which refused to get themselves into focus.

The circumstances of Monsieur Gallet's death all seem fake: the name the deceased was travelling under and his presumed profession, and more worryingly, his family's grief. Their haughtiness seems to hide ambiguous feelings about the hapless man. In this haunting story, Maigret discovers the appalling truth and the real crime hidden behind the surface of lies.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret Stonewalled and The Death of Monsieur Gallet.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

Reviews

Bolton rules the world of psychological thrillers

—— Nina Sankovitch , Huffington Post

Ingenious

—— Washington Post

Nail-biting, spine-tingling, up-till-4a.m.-because-you-need-to-know-how-it-finishes tension!

—— fictionfan blog

Close-to-the-bone red herrings skillfully strewn across the detectives’ paths, convincing cop-shop procedure, and perceptively drawn secondary characters help push this contemporary crime novel ahead of the pack . . . Bolton looks deep into the lost-soul madness of a killer and makes her vision all too horribly real.

—— RT BookReviews

Bolton sets aside the gothic-tinged atmosphere of her early novels in favor of a more visceral sensibility, exerting immediate and continuing pull by stepping in and out of an unnamed killer’s mind . . . a nail-biting thriller

—— Publishers Weekly

An all-round hit; scary, twisty and intense

—— RT BookReviews

Scared the hell out of me!

—— Scott Buckle, blogger

... an extremely deep and involved plot that jumps from character to character and keeps them on their toes at all times ... the solid writing from this new author will keep their target reader more than intrigued

—— Suspense Magazine

A wonderful story, a superb debut... Whatever you do stick with it, this is a remarkable book and deserves to be read.

—— Miles Orchard , milorambles.co.uk

a superb & accomplished debut, beautifully written & with a heart of sadness ... Loved it! ... Great debut

—— Stav Sherez

Part Lisbeth Salander, part Jason Bourne, Munroe comes out swinging hard again. . . . A gritty, suspenseful novel.

—— Library Journal

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