IM 42 : Maigret is Afraid

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré. Maigret stumbles upon a series of murders in Fontenay-le-Comte while visiting an old school friend On his way home from a conference Maigret stops to visit an old school friend in Fontenay-le-Comte. A man in the same train car introduces himself and asks if Maigret has come to help solve the murder case. In fact the man’s brother-in-law had been murdered four days earlier followed by the murder of a local widow in the same way a blow to the head with a pipe. While Maigret is in town a third murder is reported. Maigret soon discovers that there are two warring factions in the town a clear class separation and an air of suspicion that only he can put to rest.