"The Yellow Dog" by Georges Simenon

Needless to say, a Maigret novel, atmospherically set in a French coastal town. The town is dominated by a quadrumvirate who meet in the local cafe every night and from time to time enjoy the services of the waitress: the Mayor, the Doctor (who doesn't practice), the ex-Journalist and the Wine Dealer. The last is mysteriously shot in the stomach and there is a yellow dog skulking around at the time. Is it the vagrant with the larger feet who is to blame?

I think the appeal of Simenon is that he can use a few sentences to swiftly create a mood or a character:

• "Here and there a scrap of paper scuttles along the ground."
• "Maigret seemed to have the awkward manner of a petit bourgeois visiting an aristocratic house."

It is sparse and underwritten but that is how it achieves its bleak mood.

A nice bit of noir. July 2017; 134 pages

Other books by French authors which have been reviewed in this blog can be found here.

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God