Pietr The Latvian
Ratings7
Average rating3.1
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.1
Pietr the Lett had for years been clocked across the European frontiers by Interpol. Who was he, this international swindler with the skin of a chameleon? Was he Oswald Oppenheim, friend of multi-millionaires? Or Olaf Swann, a Norwegian merchant officer down at Fécamp? Or Fédor Yurovich, a down-and-out Russian drunk? Or could he have been the twisted corpse they found on the Pole Star express when it drew into Paris?
It cost Maigret one of his best inspectors — and a ducking in the sea — to unravel one of the most tortuous puzzles of identity he had ever handled.
Reviews with the most likes.
It was a bit slow at the start, but really picked up speed about halfway through. Had twists I did not expect, which is nice. Only knock I have is that the bulk of the story is that Maigret spends a lot of time just standing or sitting around, waiting and that's only when he isn't rushing off from place to place. Nonetheless, I would recommend it.
I was kind of lost in the sauce when it came to the actual mystery until the end, but man no one writes about walking around a city in the pouring rain like Simenon.
Short Review: I read this on John Wilson's (Books and Culture editor) recommendation. Penguin is doing new translations of the whole (more than 100 volume) series. I like starting at the beginning so I knew that this was not one of his best rated books. It is a solid short mystery.
But there was on line that keeps stilling with me. Maigret says he looks for the person's normal humanity (my paraphrase), while most detectives look for the criminal. Maigret usually finds the criminal while looking for their humanity, but other detectives may miss the criminal because at heart everyone has a human side.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/pietr-the-latvian/
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57 primary books58 released booksInspector Maigret is a 58-book series with 57 primary works first released in 1930 with contributions by Georges Simenon, David Bellos, and 22 others.
