From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Liberty Bar (Maigret, #17)

Georges Simenon,

David Watson (Translator)

Start date: May 15, 2024

Finish date: June 7, 2024

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Next in the Maigret series.
[close] Next in the Maigret series.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 468 topics — 9,055 comments total

Buddy reads

* Starting/joining in with buddy reads
By Judy · 1342 posts · 372 views

last updated 2 hours, 33 min ago

* White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2) (August/Sept 25)
By Susan · 29 posts · 12 views

last updated Sep 04, 2025 12:17PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

May 27, 2020 Adrian rated it it was amazing

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

Lunchtime Listen November 23
I think my original read and review from 3 years ago basically sums up my thoughts, its an excellent book, and as ever I am torn by which is the more superior method of experiencing Simenon : to read the wonderful prose and be fully immersed in the book or to luxuriate in the wonderful voice of Gareth Armstrong as he shares his view of the beautiful stories.

Series Read May 20
So Maigret is called in to a murder case in the glamorous South of France, but told by the pow ...more

64 likes · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2013 KOMET rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

Chief Inspector Maigret is on special assignment in the Côte d'Azur. He is met at the train station in Antibes by a young inspector by the name of Boutigues. Boutigues, knowing of Maigret's reputation, tries to ingratiate himself with the veteran policemen of the Paris Police Judiciare. Maigret shows little interest in the younger man as they ride an ancient fiacre to a house some distance away. It's a residence owned by an Australian. An Australian who had lived in the area for the past decade ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2019 John rated it really liked it

Shelves: georges-simenon

Another good read. I think the most common phrase associated with Maigret for me is’Would you like a drink’. This story is set in Cannes. Maigret is there to make sure there is no drama after Wilson an Australian is murdered. His family who he is ostracized from are wealthy and want to at all costs avoid a scandal. Wilson is a drunk who lives in a villa with a mother and his mistress the daughter. He also visits the Liberty Bar with Jaja the drunken owner and her protege Sylvie.

Wilson leaves a ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2017 John Frankham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime-detective

A 2020 re-read and I appreciated it more. Why? Appreciated Simenon’s understanding of, and sympathy for, a wide range of types.

A good, but not outstanding, Maigret novel. Maigret goes to the French Riviera to investigate the fatal stabbing of a wealthy Australian domiciled in France and estranged from his grasping family, one working in the neighbourhood too. Maigret gets to know the women he lived with, and the women in the tiny bar he frequented, in order to disentangle the lives and motives o ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 22, 2017 Tony Fitzpatrick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Maigret is in the South of France in book 17. Once again totally ignoring local police sensibilities as he investigates the murder of an Australian businessman who was mixed up with various local low life. The suspects for the murder (his mistress and her daughter) are eliminated immediately as Maigret follows the murder victims lifestyle to a down at heel bar in Antibes. He discovers the affair he was having with a local bar owning madam, and the temptations he fell victim too with a local pros ...more

Like · see review

Apr 12, 2024 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: georges-simenon

In this story of Maigret, he is sent to Antibes, the south of France, to find the murderer of a man who was at one time connected to French Intelligence. Although he is sent there, he is told that there is to be no dramas as to the outcome. It seems that the dead man, William Brown, is an Australian, but has been living in he glamourous part of France, for ten years, with two women. The women are a young girl and her mother, and the nature of Brown's death leads the police to believe that they a ...more

Like · see review

Jul 31, 2015 Nanosynergy rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, reviewed, mysteries-thrillers-espionage, series, fiction-1930s, 2015read, france, translated

Inspector Maigret investigates the murder of a man who lives with a gold-digging woman and her mother in the French Riviera. In their "concern" that he is still technically married and they needed time to go through what was theirs in the villa or they may lose their property to his heirs, they bury him themselves and do not report the murder until later. In addition to these two women, Inspector Maigret discovers two other women the man spent time with in "Liberty Bar" which is located in the s ...more

Like · see review

Jan 21, 2024 Mark Schiffer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, crime, simenon, series

Inspector Maigret travels to the Riviera to solve the murder of a man stabbed in the back. Two households of women, so much booze, a dreamy-as-hell atmosphere, and an outcome that hits like a ton of bricks. One of my favorite Simenons so far.

Like · see review

May 16, 2024 Sandy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery-classic, rread-2024, novella-length

These books are excellent for a well-developed mystery, complete with atmosphere, contained within a book easily read in a single sitting. This time Maigret in visiting the French Riviera, but not the luxury locations. Interesting characters.

Like · see review