Simenon was my first crime novelist hero. I don’t know how many of his novels I’ve read, but it’s only a small fraction of the hundreds and hundreds he wrote. The first one I read was MAIGRET and the BUM (MAIGRET et le CLOCHARD) which i picked up in Value Village in Tucson years ago. Something clicked for me with the atmosphere, dialogue and the length and I’ve tried to emulate him ever since in all those areas.
I mentioned length. They generally are in the hundred and fifteen to hundred and twenty page length. Just about right for an airplane trip. In the book I’m writing now, Trinity’s reading (on an airplane) Maigret and the Strangled Stripper. He finishes it before the end of the flight.
The entire Maigret catalog is now being re-released by Penguin. Don’t miss them.