My friend Maigret - Georges Simenon

Past acquaintances resurface in the sun-drenched south of France in this new translation, book thirty-one of the new Penguin Maigret series.

'The palm trees around the railway station were motionless, fixed in a Saharan sun . . . It really felt as if they were stepping into another world, and they were embarrassed to be entering it in the dark clothes that had been suited to the rainy streets of Paris the evening before.'

An officer from Scotland Yard is studying Maigret's methods when a call from an island off the Cte d'Azure sends the two men off to an isolated community to investigate its eccentric inhabitants.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations.

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent