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Maigret and the Man on the Bench

Inspector Maigret, Book 41

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Maigret and the Man on the Bench

By: Georges Simenon
Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
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About this listen

Inspector Maigret must untangle the web of lies left behind by a murdered man whose family didn't know him as well as they thought.

When a man is found stabbed to death in an alley off Boulevard Saint-Martin, his identity card shows a workplace that had gone out of business three years earlier. As far as his wife knew, he still worked there, and she insists that the shoes and a tie he was wearing when he was killed 'couldn't be his'. It soon becomes evident that although he had a source of income, he spent most of his time sitting on a bench in the neighbourhood, often with the same unknown man. Can Maigret find him?

©1953 Georges Simenon (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Classics Crime Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction
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I love the Maigret stories and Gareth Armstrong narrates them magnificently. His voice is very soothing and easy to listen to.

Great Story

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We follow Maigret on the trail of the killer of the unfortunate Monsieur Louis. The characters are well drawn and stick in the memory and you'll be guessing until the very end who out of a cast of familial members and Paris low life committed the killing. The denouement is perhaps a little sudden and out of the blue but you'll think on reflection, yes there were clues. Excellently read and character voiced by the narrator.

Gently and engagingly entertaining.

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Great narration from Gareth Armstrong especially his female voices, as always Georges Simenon's stories are an easy listen.

Gareth Armstrong 👍👍

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Literary bliss is the only way to describe listening to the absolutely magnificent works of Georges Simenon. When you hear the great man's words, so magnificently read by Gareth Armstrong, you fully understand why Simenon is widely regarded as one of the most important authors of the twentieth century, or any other century for that matter. He expresses the workings of the human mind, in all of its glories and deficiencies, more succinctly than anyone in literature. It's little wonder then that he's also one of literature's largest sellers, and rightly so. A superb writer who wastes not a single letter, never mind word, whose stories are a constant thrill, worthy of multiple visits.

Literary bliss.

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This was a wonderful storyline with superb characterisations but, as so often happens, Simenon just cobbles together a quick and very unsatisfactory ending which rather lets some of the air out of the balloon. You are left thinking, “What, after all that we are given this?” However, as usual, Gareth Armstrong is just superb and IS Maigret.

Wonderful main story and build-up but weak and hurried ending (as so often)

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