The Inspector Maigret mysteries were recommended me by my friend, Warren, and since I intend to read at least a few books in the series, I decided to start with the first.

Pietr the Latvian was a strange novel. It starts with Inspector Maigret getting word that a notorious conman, the titular Pietr, has been spotted. He boards the train that Pietr is supposed to be on only to find that Pietr is dead. But a few hours later, Pietr is seen at the Hotel Majestic – alive!

The most striking thing about this novel is that everything is filtered through the eyes of Inspector Maigret, but instead of participating in the action with him, we’re just bystanders. There is very little emotion – at times, it felt like the events of the novel were just flowing past me.

In fact, the only other thing I noticed was the squalor of the places that Maigret visited. The hotel is said to be grand, but Maigret also goes into some dirty apartment buildings and honestly, I think those made a bigger impression. It feels like the ‘dirt’ from Pietr rubs off onto everyone – including the fancy American couple that Pietr was seen dining with.

And yet, I couldn’t put the book down. I followed Maigret as he tirelessly tracked down lead after lead (even though I didn’t really know why), followed him as he got injured, until finally, everything was explained.

The mystery itself is satisfactory. There is a clever but believable twist in the end that left me satisfied. I don’t know when I’ll pick up the next book, or if I should jump ahead to another one, but the series was pretty highly recommend and I enjoyed this enough that I’m willing to read the next book. So if you have any recommendations as to which Inspector Maigret I should read, let me know!

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