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Welcome to our Jan/Feb 25 buddy read The Judge's House Book 21 in the Inspector Maigret series was first published in 1942.

He went out, lit his pipe and walked slowly to the harbour. He could hear scurrying footsteps behind him. The sea was becoming swollen. The beams of the lighthouses joined in the sky. The moon had just risen and the judge's house emerged from the darkness, all white, a crude, livid,
unreal white.

Exiled from the Police Judiciare in Paris, Maigret bides his time in a remote coastal town of France. There, among the lighthouses, mussel farms and the eerie wail of foghorns, he discovers that a community's loyalties hide unpleasant truths.

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

Although I loved the atmospheric writing, as usual, I was a bit irritated by the plot of this book. We never find out exactly what is supposed to be wrong with the judge's daughter - nymphomania? There are vague mentions of her suffering "attacks" and having to be shut up in her bedroom.

We also don't find out why Maigret has been banished from Paris to the Vendee. A lot of unanswered questions all round.

While I agree with all the unresolved questions, I found the plot easier to follow than some Maigret's. I wonder if Simenon gets bored having Maigret always in Paris and just moves him around randomly.

I liked the reference to a younger, inexperienced Maigret.

That's a good point about Simenon probably getting bored with the same setting. Maybe he also wanted to write about other areas that he came to know. Maigret seems to be starting to settle in by the end, but I don't think he will be spending much more time there!