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Title: The Shadow Puppet
Subtitle: Inspector Maigret, Book 12
Author: Georges Simenon, Ros Schwartz (translator)
Narrator: Gareth Armstrong
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-17-14
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense

Publisher's Summary:
One by one the lighted windows went dark. The silhouette of the dead man could still be seen through the frosted glass like a Chinese shadow puppet. A taxi pulled up. It wasn't the public prosecutor yet. A young woman crossed the courtyard with hurried steps, leaving a whiff of perfume in her wake.
Summoned to the dimly-lit Place des Vosges one night, where he sees shadowy figures at apartment windows, Maigret uncovers a tragic story of desperate lives, unhappy families, addiction and a terrible, fatal greed.
Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the "Maigret" books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have 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.
Anthea Bell is the award-winning translator of numerous French and German works: from the Asterix comics to W. G. Sebald's literary masterpiece Austerlitz.
Audible will be producing all 75 Maigret titles.

Members Reviews:
Maigret grows positively fond of the dead man
This novel exemplifies everything I love about Maigret â the way the huge burly inspector lurks in the vicinity of the crime absorbing impressions; his habit of hanging around and chatting aimlessly with potential suspects, casually cranking them up; his unexpected bursts of fondness or compassion for various characters...
Maigret claims to have no method, yet his mere presence on the scene is a kind of method. It's great fun to watch him rattling a suspect with an expression of stupidity, an air of inattention, or a sudden roughness of manner. The unhurried pace of his investigation is always something to savor.
In this story, he grows unaccountably fond of the victim, Monsieur Coucher, wealthy owner of a health serum company shot dead in the presence of his empty safe. The good-natured Coucher lived life to the full. He had three women in his life â an elegant upper-class wife, a bitter ex-wife, and a charming young mistress. Maigret gets to know them quite well.
Simenon believed in writing novels that could be read in a day. The Shadow Puppet is certainly short and concise â not a word wasted â yet so dense with suggestive psychological undercurrents and unsettling atmosphere that it's totally satisfying and feels like it's taking place in real time.
I thought I'd read every Maigret novel available in English, but this one was new to me. I loved every minute of it. Although The Shadow a Puppet is an early Maigret, published in France in 1932, it already exhibits the understated wit, psychological nuances and haiku-like descriptions found in Simenon's best mysteries. The translation, I believe, successfully captures Simenon's inimitable style.

Good Old Couchet
Maigret finds himself liking a murdered man that he never met while he looks for his murderer among 28 residents of what an American would call an apartment complex. This Simenon novel has especially strong character portraits of sad and nasty people.

"Good old Couchet!"
Like so many of Simenon's novels, this one improves with rereading. So read it, pour a cup of coffee, and read it again.

Not his best
No the best in the series. A bit lazy and characters are confusing and poorly drawn by the master.