La Guinguette a Deux Sous

A great Maigret story. Lots of detailed imagery as Maigret soaks up the atmosphere and lives of the group of people that send weekends at the Bar on the Seine

I read this little novel under the influence of cold germs, and let me assure you, Maigret is just the ticket when you're feeling weak and feverish. Immediately you're immersed in an atmosphere as soothing as a warm bath. No car chases or shoot-outs here, just the unsettling sensation of watching and waiting for something criminal to be revealed within a group of friends whose lives seem boringly respectable. In this book Maigret loses most of his holiday observing the revels and recreations of others. More than one good man is brought down by the rather banal femme fatale. Inspector Maigret has a curious compassion for criminals whose misdeeds arise from tawdry affairs, poorly managed finances or misguided youth. We see interesting examples of this in The Bar on The Seine.

"The Bar on the Seine" is an early Inspector Maigret mystery and a very tale story indeed! The story itself--the investigation of a six-year old murder that leads to a second killing as Maigret skeptically begins a look at the earlier crime--is well told and keeps the reader turning pages until the end. But along the way, the details of daily life in Paris and the social interactions of Parisians are presented in such specific detail and so convincingly that it is like reading a newspaper of the period. "The Bar" is a wonderful small novel and a terrific read. This book is part of a Penguin reprint of some of the Maigret stories (of which there are 75 novels and many stories). I will be among many who will attempt to read them all.

The story dates back to 1932. In the opening the prisoner, Lenoir, is to be executed the following day. He is young, no more than 22. The condemned man refuses to speak in a meaningful way to the law enforcement officials to save himself. In the end no one keeps Lenoir company. Maigret goes to Morsang to an inn on the Seine while his wife is in the country. There is sailing. One of the guests, Marcel Basso, has a gun, and Monsieur Feinstein is shot dead. Madame Feinstein, Mado, is taken indoors. Maigret hates Paris when his wife is there. He learns that Mado and Basso had a friendship. Basso is missing. After the commission of the crime, Maigret does not feel he is a welcome presence to the weekenders. The establishment at the river is called Guinguette a Deux Sous. When someone shows up from a municipal sanitorium Maigret mentions the name of Lenoir. Obviously the new man is someone who is going to live on his lung trouble. Maigret, during the several weekends of the investigation, drinks a number of Pernods at the Taverne Royale on the opposite side of the river. He learns that a man was killed six years earlier. His body was thrown into the canal. When Basso is found he says that he was just about to give himself up. He admits he is the killer through inadvertence. Maigret is able to make all of the connections to past and present events and characters. The book is notable for its atmosphere and the pace of the storytelling.

Another great Maigret's novel.Splendid evocation of week-ends along the river (Seine) in the thirties. The atmosphere is close to the impressionism.You have to read this novel !