H (no longer expecting notifications) Balikov asked Gary Inbinder:

In The Hanged Man there is an "unnecessary" scene (p. 43) where Lefebvre has to kill time doing paperwork at HQ. This is the kind of touch that I appreciate. How much research did it take to uncover what "routine" was for the Paris police back then?

Gary Inbinder Thanks for the question, H. I read several books to get an impression of Paris police work in that period, including "The Truth About the Case: The Experiences of M.F. Goron, Ex Chief of the Paris Detective Police" (1907) and Ashton Wolfe's "The Forgotten Clue," (1930). Ashton Wolfe was a British detective and fiction writer who worked with the Paris detectives in the early twenties. With the exception of some advancements in communications, transportation and forensics, routine procedure in the early 1920s probably hadn't changed much from what it was in the 1890s.

I also drew upon Simenon's "Maigret." Simenon's experience with the Paris police dates from the time he was a young reporter in the twenties. Further, Simenon may have based Maigret on Marcel Guillaume, a detective who began his career around the turn of the century.

Finally, I considered my own experience with the law, since I believe much daily routine work is timeless and universal.

Best,

Gary

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