The two-penny bar - Georges Simenon

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves


'A radiant late afternoon. The sunshine almost as thick as syrup in the quiet streets of the Left Bank . . .
there are days like this, when ordinary life seems heightened, when the people walking down the street, the
trams and cars all seem to exist in a fairy tale.'

A story told by a condemned man leads Maigret to a bar by the Seine and into the sleazy underside of respectable Parisian life. In the oppressive heat of summer, a forgotten crime comes to light.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel is a revised translation, previously published as The Bar on the Seine.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'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