Maigret and inspector curmudgeon
Maigret and Inspector Curmudgeon (original title Maigret et l'Inspecteur Malchanceux , later Maigret et l'Inspecteur Malgracieux ) is a story by Georges Simenon , in which Commissioner Maigret investigates together with the difficult District Commissioner Lognon. The work belonging to the series of Maigret novels and stories was created on May 5, 1946 in St. Marguerite and was published in 1947 in the volume of short stories Maigret et l'Inspecteur Malchanceux by Presse de la Cité. The German translation of the story was first published in 1948 by Langewiesche under the title Maigret und der grummige Inspektor , then by Kiepenheuer and Witsch ( Maigret and Inspektor Lognon ) in the translation by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau, and finally in a new translation by Angelika Essig in 1980 in the volume Maigret stories, first episode in Diogenes. Simenon revived the character of the unfortunate Commissioner Lognon in the Maigret novels Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters (1952) and Maigret and the Young Dead (1954).
action
Maigret spends the night at the emergency call center of the Paris police, waiting for a call from London. At this time, an emergency call comes in from the 18th arrondissement , from Rue Caulaincourt at the corner of Rue Lamarck. Although he actually has nothing to do with the matter, Maigret rushes to Montmartre . The exclamation when the emergency call was made "I'm going to the Poilzei" and then the shot had made Maigret suspicious; it reminded him of a case only a few months ago in which a Polish criminal escaped arrest with exactly this exclamation and then shot himself in the head. But that information was never given to the press, so where did the victim get the internal information on this older issue?
The corpse lies next to the emergency telephone at the intersection, according to the identity card it is Michel Goldfinger, a small diamond dealer from Rue Lamarck, as you soon find out. Inspector Lognon, who was hoping to excel on this murder case, is furious about Maigret's presence. He feels sorry for the unlucky fellow, because he actually likes Lognon quite well and considers him a capable police officer and detective. Maigret has to assure him again and again during the joint investigation that he has no intention of taking the case off his hands, but that he would like to be kept up to date. Lognon and Maigret now go to the address that was on the ID. There they meet an interesting family constellation. The wife and her sister are in the apartment; The dead man's wife does not seem to be doing well, her sister takes over the talking and is really affected by the death of her brother-in-law. The investigators cannot record such a movement in the woman's facial features. You learn that Goldfinger was in debt and that evening he had hoped to receive the sum. His revolver, which was usually in the bedside table drawer, was gone, too.
The forensic investigation shows that a silencer was placed on the pistol ; soon you find out that a second shot was fired at the emergency telephone; one was fatal, the other was supposed to fake suicide. Lognon also finds out that Goldfinger, who believed he was terminally ill, had high life insurance policies . The observation and telephone monitoring do not reveal anything new; Goldfinger's wife does not appear to leave the apartment. When she finally opened the next day and pleaded illness, Maigret was puzzled: Her hairstyle and make-up are flawless. Then Maigret remembers the former colleague who was involved in the case of the Polish criminal and was soon dismissed for incompetence, a certain Mariani. It is soon discovered that Mariani had rented the apartment above Goldfingers and therefore the diamond dealer's wife never had to leave the house to consult with her husband's murderer.
expenditure
- Maigret et l'Inspecteur malgracieux . Paris, Presse de la Cité, 1947 (first edition)
- Maigret and the grumpy inspector / Maigret et l'inspecteur malgracieux [German-French] ( transl .: Ulrich Friedrich Müller), Edition Langewiesche-Brandt, Ebenhausen: Langewiesche-Brandt, 4th edition, 1967.
- Maigret and Inspector Lognon. Detective novel . (German by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau). Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1965.
- Maigret and inspector curmudgeon . In: Maigret stories. First episode . Zurich: Diogenes, 1980. ISBN 325700978X
Adaptations
- Inspector Lognon's Triumph , British TV film (directed by John Harrison, 1961) with Rupert Davies (Maigret).
- Maigret e l'ispettore sfortunato , episode 3, season 3 of the Italian television series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (1968, director: Mario Landi ), with Gino Cervi (Maigret).
- Maigret et l'Inspecteur malgracieux , episode 79 of the French television series Les Enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1988, director: Philippe Laïk ) with Jean Richard (Maigret) and Annick Tanguy (Mme Maigret).
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ The edition contains the two stories Maigret and Inspector Lognon and The Testimony of the Altar boy .