What was the woman doing here? Why was her body found in a stable, wearing pearl earrings, a stylish bracelet and white buckskin shoes?
She must have been alive when she got there because the crime had been committed after ten in the evening. But how? And why? No one had heard a thing! She had not screamed. The two carters had not woken up. If a whip had not been mislaid, the body might not have been discovered for a couple of weeks and only by chance when someone turned over the straw.
These questions lead Maigret into an unfamiliar world of the navigable rivers and canals of France, with their run-down cafes, shadowy towpaths, and eccentric inhabitants.
This is a recent translation of the second novel in the Inspector Maigret series - Georges Simenon's tragic tale of lost identity. The Penguin series features brilliant renderings by some of today's best translators from French to English and introduces the intrepid Inspector to a brand new audience.