Signed, Picpus

by Georges Simenon, David Coward (Translator)

Overview

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré

Maigret dismantles an intricate network of lies stretching from Paris to Nice in this page-turning mystery

“Mechanically, he had put his pince-nez down on the blotter and looked at it there with his large, short-sighted eyes. It is at that moment that the strange thing happens. One of the lenses, acting as a mirror, reflected the criss-cross, hatched ink marks which had dried on the blotter and he could just make out a couple of words.”

When a fortune-teller is found murdered in her apartment, Maigret must find out not only who commited the crime, but why it was predicted in a note found earlier—signed by the unknown Picpus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780241188460
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Series:	Maigret Series , #23
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	260,863
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in the English-speaking world as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories has made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

David Coward is the award-winning translator of Albert Cohen's Belle du Seigneur and numerous other French works.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Georges Simenon:

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian

“These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.” —The Washington Post

“The matchless French crime novelist.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” —People

“I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.” —William Faulkner

“An astute observer of human nature, writing in a spare and vivid style.” —Amor Towles

“I never read contemporary fiction–with one exception: the works of Simenon.” —T.S. Eliot

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré

“One of the most important writers of our century.” —Gabriel García Márquez

“A favorite writer of mine.” —Sigrid Nunez

“A great writer of detail, of atmosphere.” —Leïla Slimani

“Feels incredibly modern…A great writer.” —Ian Rankin

“The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” —André Gide

“A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” —The Independent (London)

“Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” —The Observer (London)

“Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.” —John Gray

“A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.” —Muriel Spark

“A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.” —Peter Ackroyd

“Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.” —John Banville

"Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor" ―Times (London)

"Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it's the food that counts." ―Margaret Atwood

"One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere." ―Financial Times

"Gripping . . . richly rewarding . . . You'll quickly find yourself obsessing about his life as you tackle each mystery in turn." ―Stig Abell, The Sunday Times (London)

From the Publisher