From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives

A Crime in Holland
by
Start date
November 15, 2022
Finish date
December 7, 2022
Discussion
Buddy reads
Why we're reading this
Next in our series of Maigret buddy reads.

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Showing 2 of 468 topics — 9,056 comments total
+ Buddy reads
* Starting/joining in with buddy reads
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last updated 3 hours, 31 min ago
* White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2) (August/Sept 25)
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last updated Sep 04, 2025 12:17PM

What Members Thought

Adrian
Aug 05, 2019 rated it really liked it
Another wonderful atmospheric Maigret novel.

So, I was a tad late in reading this, as it was meant to be July's Maigret, but nevertheless it was a fantastic read. Simenon must have been an amazing observer of human nature as his characters show the good things about humans but also the bad, the evil, the hate and the jealousness.

This story is based in a little village in north eastern Holland near the border with Germany, on the river Ems and the gateway to the North Sea. Maigret, unable to spea
...more
John Frankham
Feb 08, 2016 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: crime-detective
An early Maigret, typical of the first ten, all published together in 1932. A good study of small-town bourgeois Dutch life.

The GR blurb:

'Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife . . . 'Everyone here earns his living. Everyone's more or less content. And above all, everyone keeps his instincts under control, because that's the rule here, and a necessity if peopl
...more
John
Jan 27, 2017 rated it liked it
Shelves: georges-simenon
Not one of Maigret's best stories. Set in Holland a man is murdered and a French national is suspected of the murder. Maigret is sent to investigate. The repressed wife and general village with the randy Dutch young girl having an affair with the victim. A nice atmospheric story with unlikeable characters and the murderer an unlikely one! ...more
Sandy
Nov 13, 2022 rated it really liked it
Simenon is able to portray characters vividly and succinctly and his plots move briskly. In this book he needs to solve the case without knowing the language.
Jill
Nov 18, 2022 rated it really liked it
Shelves: georges-simenon
In this Maigret finds himself sent to a small Dutch town as a French professor has been put under arrest for the murder of one of the inhabitants. Unfortunately, Maigret does not speak a word of the language, so this means he cannot talk to the majority of people involved, only those who know some French. However, this does not seem to hamper him at all, with him just going on in his own way. He decides to re-enact the crime with those involved after gaining his knowledge, to enable him to under ...more
Tony Fitzpatrick
Maigret is in Holland investigating the murder of an academic, for which the suspect is a French citizen. How and why this happens, or indeed the real attitude of the Dutch police (as opposed to local idiots) isn't clear, but we will pass on that. We then have a portrait of a very neat, ordered, Dutch coastal community. The murder is treated as an inconvenience by most of the locals, and the police would rather it was cleared up quickly by blaming a "foreign sailor" (now gone and never to return ...more
Nanosynergy
Chief Inspector Maigret is sent to investigate when a French professor visiting the Dutch coastal town of Delfzjil is accused of murder. Both are outsiders. Maigret investigates through the challenges of language barriers and cultural differences. An interesting look a 1930s Netherlands.
Jan C
Aug 21, 2011 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Ellen
Nov 16, 2014 marked it as to-read
Dipanjan
Jan 27, 2016 marked it as to-read
Shelves: own-in-kindle
jaadhimalli
Jan 27, 2018 rated it it was ok
Shelves: audiobook
Shabbeer Hassan
Oct 03, 2018 marked it as to-read
Laurel
Jul 21, 2019 marked it as to-read
Niveditha
Mar 31, 2020 marked it as to-read
Vanessa
Oct 24, 2020 rated it really liked it
Leslie
Jun 14, 2022 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: kindle, mysteries, french
Dennis
Nov 03, 2022 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: ficiton-crime
Gary Vassallo
Nov 08, 2022 marked it as ebook-library
Judy
Nov 13, 2022 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Sarah
Mar 09, 2023 rated it it was amazing
Marilyn Maya
Nov 29, 2023 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Ivana
Nov 28, 2023 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Tom
Nov 18, 2024 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition