Inspector Maigret Books in Order books in order

Inspector Maigret Books in Order

About the Author

Georges Simenon was a Belgian writer and one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century, publishing around 400 novels and selling over 500 million copies. Born in Liège, Belgium in 1903, he created Inspector Maigret in 1930 and wrote psychological crime novels that earned critical acclaim from literary giants like André Gide and François Mauriac.

The Inspector Maigret series represents one of detective fiction’s greatest achievements—75 novels and 28 short stories featuring a pipe-smoking Parisian police inspector who solves crimes not through brilliant deduction but through patience, observation, and deep psychological insight. Created by Belgian author Georges Simenon, the series ran from 1931 to 1972, capturing four decades of Parisian life.

Jules Maigret isn’t your typical detective. He doesn’t have Sherlock Holmes’s genius or Hercule Poirot’s elaborate theories. Instead, he’s methodical, patient, and deeply interested in understanding people. He solves crimes by immersing himself in the world of the victim and suspects, smoking his pipe, drinking calvados in local cafes, and patiently waiting for the truth to reveal itself. This psychological approach to detective work was revolutionary when Simenon created him and remains compelling today.

Set primarily in Paris, the novels capture the atmosphere of different neighborhoods, from the bourgeois districts to the working-class areas and the criminal underworld. Simenon’s spare, precise prose creates vivid settings with remarkable economy. He can evoke the mood of a rainy Parisian evening, a shabby hotel room, or a provincial town in just a few sentences.

The series chronicles Maigret’s career from an active detective to the head of the Brigade Criminelle (La Crim), Paris’s serious crime unit. Throughout, he’s supported by his devoted wife, Louise Maigret, who provides a stable home life that contrasts with the darkness he encounters professionally. Their relationship, though never the focus, grounds the series in domestic warmth.

Maigret’s methods frustrate his superiors and colleagues who want quick results. He prefers to spend time in the neighborhoods where crimes occurred, talking to concierges, bartenders, and locals. He observes, absorbs the atmosphere, and gradually pieces together not just what happened but why. His goal isn’t merely solving the case but understanding the human tragedy behind it.

Simenon wrote the novels with remarkable speed, typically completing a book in 10 to 14 days. This rapid composition gave the books their distinctive immediacy and energy. Despite the speed of composition, the quality remained consistently high, with spare prose that never wasted words. Simenon knew exactly what to include and what to leave out.

The series has been adapted numerous times for film and television in France, Britain, and other countries. Most recently, a 2025 PBS Masterpiece adaptation reimagined Maigret as a young contemporary detective, though traditionalists prefer the classic interpretations by actors like Rupert Davies, Bruno Cremer, and Rowan Atkinson.

Critics and fellow writers admired Simenon’s work. André Gide called him “perhaps the greatest and most genuine novelist that we have had in contemporary French literature.” The Maigret novels, while categorized as mysteries, transcended the genre through their psychological depth and literary quality.