Death threats
Death threats (Alternative title The threatening letter , original title Menaces de mort ) is a story by Georges Simenon , the Commissioner Maigret the death threats pursues against an industrialist. The work belonging to the series of Maigret novels and stories was written in Fontenay-le-Comte in the winter of 1941/42 between the novels Maigret contra Picpus and Maigret and the maid . It first appeared in six episodes between March 8 and April 12, 1942 in the magazine Révolution Nationale and was then forgotten. The story was first published in book form in 1992 in Volume 25 of the Simenon edition of Tout Simenon, published by Omnibus .
In the German translation by Linde Birk it appeared for the first time in 2000 under the title Der Drohbrief bei Diogenes in the anthology Crimes that are worthwhile , an edition of the magazine Ink Bottle . The new translation by Hainer Kober under the title Death Threats was used in the anthology Complete Maigret Stories , published in 2009 .
action
A certain Emile Grosbois, a millionaire who got rich in the scrap trade, receives death threats in a letter, made up of newspaper snippets: “ Old scoundrel, this time it's your collar. It doesn't matter whether you go to Le Coudray or not, and even if you show up with a whole regiment of guards, on Sunday evening at six you are a dead man. And everyone will be damn happy when they finally get rid of you. ". Grosbois therefore turns to the Paris criminal police and asks Maigret to spend the weekend with him at his country estate, near Le Coudray-Montceaux , about 35 kilometers south-east of Paris on the Seine . He couldn't imagine who would mean something bad for him. He claims he has no enemies. Maigret promises to deal with the matter; he is picked up from the train station in Coudray and driven out. He meets a very strange family, the twin brother of Grosbois, Oscar (who is also his partner), his sister Françoise and their two children, Henri and Eliane. And a maid. Everyone seems to be very interested in Grosbois' fortune ...
Maigret takes part in the common meal at the country estate in Le Coudray; and usually everyone is present. Once there, the family first tries to pretend an ideal world for him , but soon there is a crack in the beams. It quickly becomes apparent that Emile Grosbois' blanket statement that he had no enemies, even in relation to the family, was pure wishful thinking. So it will be an exciting afternoon and Maigret is slowly becoming curious about what the threatening letter writer has planned.
Despite the beautiful weather, the atmosphere at the Grosbois is rather stuffy; you get bored, but the principle is: because you have a country house, everyone has to gather there on the weekends. In the afternoon the group becomes more nervous; Maigret discovers that young Henri was using cocaine . Emile Grosbois swallows medication because he claims to have a heart condition. Oscar finally admits to Maigret that he is the anonymous letter writer. He had learned that, claiming that he needed rest, his brother had only gone to the country estate to have fun with Babette, the family maid. Oscar vehemently denies ever planning to kill his brother.
expenditure
After its first publication in Révolution Nationale (1942), the story did not appear until 1992 in the Simenon work edition Tout Simenon (Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1988–1993) and in Tout Simenon (Paris, Omnibus, 2002–2004). The story was published by Diogenes Verlag in 2000 in the literary journal Ink Bottle (detebe 22024) and in 2006 in the anthology Erlesene Verbrechen (edited by Daniel Keel and Daniel Kampa, detebe 23574 ISBN 978-3-257-23574-6 ). It is also available in the anthology, Complete Maigret Stories ( ISBN 978-3-257-06682-1 ), published by Diogenes in 2009 . In 2001 it was published by Omnibus in an edition illustrated by Jacques de Loustal in the Carnets collection .