C茅cile is Dead (Maigret, #22) in Reading the Detectives

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C茅cile is Dead (Maigret, #22)

Georges Simenon,

Anthea Bell (Translator)

Start date: March 15, 2025

Finish date: April 7, 2025

Discussion: Maigret buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Next in this long-running classic series
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Maigret buddy reads

* Cecile is Dead by Georges Simenon (Maigret #22) (March/April 25)
By Susan · 5 posts · 10 views

last updated Mar 24, 2025 02:46PM

* Cecile is Dead - SPOILER Thread - (Maigret #22) (March/April 25)
By Susan · 3 posts · 9 views

last updated Mar 24, 2025 02:50PM

What Members Thought

Sep 04, 2020 Adrian rated it really liked it

Shelves: zz-audiobook, zz-paper-books, det-georges-simenon

April 2023 Lunchtime Listen
Its strange, maybe when I read the book, I was suffering Maigret fatigue because I actually really enjoyed this as a "lunchtime listen". The only thing I would say is that it ended rather quickly , or was that because I was struggling with my sandwich and was concentrating on that. Who knows, but it sort of echos my original review below.
All of that said the "reading" by Gareth Armstrong was really superb.

2019/2020 Maigret solo series read
I will write more tomorrow, bu ...more

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Feb 04, 2018 John Frankham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime-detective

Also known as C茅cile is Dead, this Maigret from 1942 is one of the best, taking place in Paris, with an unexpected presence towards the end of an American detective, over in Paris to observe, and whom Simenon uses as someone for Maigret to expound and show his thoughts and methods. It works well, giving a broader perspective to our thoughts. As well as haunting the everyday caf茅s and restaurants that Maigret loves. A good'un

The GR blurb:

'A young woman who shares an apartment with an elderly aunt ...more

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Oct 18, 2015 KOMET rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-and-thrillers, zz-out-of-residence, georges-simenon

Here we have a story that is more than meets the eye. Paris is enmeshed in a soupy fog that gives the morning the appearance of a Gothic evening. Maigret makes his way from his home to police headquarters where a young lady with a modest and mousy demeanor, Mlle. C茅cile Pardon, has been dutifully awaiting his arrival. Lately, she had been a frequent visitor to police headquarters, vainly trying to get Maigret's attention about some "irregularities" she had noticed at the apartment of her old and Here we have a story that is more than meets the eye. Paris is enmeshed in a soupy fog that gives the morning the appearance of a Gothic evening. Maigret makes his way from his home to police headquarters where a young lady with a modest and mousy demeanor, Mlle. C茅cile Pardon, has been dutifully awaiting his arrival. Lately, she had been a frequent visitor to police headquarters, vainly trying to get Maigret's attention about some "irregularities" she had noticed at the apartment of her old and miserly aunt with whom she lives and has dutifully catered to her needs for years.

When finally Maigret deigns to meet with Mlle. Pardon, she is gone."His first reaction was to shrug it off. Then, as he sat down again, he frowned. This was not like C茅cile, who had once waited seven hours for him, sitting motionless in the waiting room. There were papers all over his desk. He searched through them for the slip she had filled in. At last, under youong Duchemin's file, he found it.

'I must see you most urgently. Something terrible happened last night.' - C茅cile Pardon"

Maigret, now in reflection mode, thinks back several months ago to a meeting he had at police headquarters with Mlle. Pardon in which she told him of her suspicions that someone had been rummaging through her aunt's personal effects during the evening. Someone who has managed somehow to get access to her aunt's apartment at a time in which she and her aunt --- who is a virtual invalid --- are fast asleep. C茅cile explained to Maigret that "... not only did I find that two chairs had been moved, but also that the thread had been broken. ... So, obviously someone must have been in the apartment. Whoever it was spent some time in the sitting room and, what's more, opened my aunt's desk. I'd rigged up something there, too. It's the third time in two months. My aunt has been almost wholly incapacitated for some months. No-one has a key to the apartment, and yet the lock hasn't been forced. I haven't liked to mention to Aunt Juliette, it would only worry her. All the same, I'm certain of one thing, nothing has been taken. If it had been, she would have mentioned it; she's so suspicious of everyone."

His curiosity fully aroused, Maigret makes his way to the house in the Bourg-la-Reine neighborhood where C茅cile Pardon had lived with her aunt for many years. There C茅cile's aunt is found in her apartment, dead. Cause of death: strangulation. A search is then carried out for C茅cile, who had been so anxious to speak with Maigret that morning. Eventually she is found in a somewhat obscure corner of police headquarters - dead. Cause of death: murder.

The rest of the novel is centered upon Maigret's efforts to solve both murders, a process which takes him down a winding path involving many of the characters in the house in the Bourg-la-Reine. Never a dull moment here. Any reader need only afford him/herself some leisure and become immersed in this lively, engaging story. ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Tony Fitzpatrick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Maigret is out of retirement - this novel was written in 1942, and I suppose Simenon wanted money - there is no reference to his retirement in previous books or any subsequent challenges, so we continue where we left off before the 1933 book Lock No. 1. This is a fairly classic whodunnit, with lots of psychological twists, now increasingly beloved of Simenon. There is also much reference to "Maigret's method", and towards the end an American criminologist is assigned to observe Maigret as he bri ...more

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