I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books (UK), Penguin Classics and Georges Simenon for the chance tor had this in return for my honest review.

I have read many Simenon novels both in English and French when I was studying 'A' Level French. They never disappoint. Written in his inimitable style this is a traditional crime story for Christmas and has the undertones of humour. Maigret is bored with Christmas and is delighted mohave a puzzle to solve.

Cleverly plotted with carefully paced twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Brilliantly written, short stories of good old fashioned detective fiction. The perfect read over the Christmas holidays, the stories all include a Christmas theme. Comprised of three short stories, all set in the Paris of the early 1950s, these tales of murder and detection will keep you enthralled. I particularly enjoyed the small descriptions of Paris and the Parisians of the 50s. Similar to Poirot, Maigret uses his little grey brain cells to solve a mystery in his own neighbourhood, when Father Christmas makes an unexpected appearance. These stories are a fab read, particularly recommended for anyone who enjoys vintage detective stories and would make a brilliant Christmas gift.

This is a good little collection of three Maigret stories set around Christmas.

For me, the short stories aren't quite as satisfying as a full length novel; brief as they are, the novels allow Simenon to build more of a rounded story and to develop his characters more deeply, which is the real pleasure of the Maigret books. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable Christmas read.

David Coward's translation is very good, conveying Simenon's quiet power and Maigret's thoughtful approach, so the stories are an easy and involving read. I can recommend this to anyone who enjoys Maigret.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Stepping back in time, in Paris, facilitated by George Simeon's Maigret, could not have been better accomplished. The narrative provides a great feel about the culture in the 30's and how investigative and police work was carried out (boy did those guys drink a lot :)).

I enjoyed the window into the past. Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK) for a review copy.

Madame Maigret is hoping for a quiet Christmas Day, spent peacefully at home with her husband, with no interruptions from his police work. She's out of luck! Inspector Maigret is barely up, and certainly not properly dressed, before two women from the opposite apartment block arrive with a tale of a man, dressed up as Father Christmas, having visited the daughter of one of them in the night. Whether or not he believes in Santa, Maigret immediately suspects something fishy is afoot, and sets out to investigate the matter, while barely moving from the comfort of his armchair.

This story featuring Georges Simenon's most famous character, Inspector Maigret, is one of a collection of three, all set in Paris at Christmas - the perfect read for a quiet moment (if there is such a thing) after Christmas Day dinner. For long-term fans of Maigret, it's a little festive gem. For those less familiar, it works as an introduction to the Inspector, his police team, and personal life; I was particularly impressed with how much of the Maigrets' family life was explored in such a short story without stealing the show from the investigation. A few words here and there from the author, and I felt like I knew this couple intimately.
The mystery itself is probably not all that complex, but after all this is a short story, not a full-length novel which has time for more false trails and diversions, and it makes an enjoyable festive crime read.

What a treat! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to sample this Christmas offering from the late George’s Simenon. For anyone of a certain age it will immediately stir happy memories of Rupert Davies as the great detective and Ewen Solon as his much put-upon sidekick, Lucas. For fans of modern crime drama this is an intriguingly different approach to crime storytelling which relies more on the depth of knowledge, intuition and observation of a skilled Parisian detective. What it may lack in profiling, forensics and gritty realism is more than compensated for by the beautifully written story and the evocation of a Paris from a much earlier age. Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Classics for a review copy of A Maigret Christmas (the other stories are not included).

Maigret is at home on Christmas Day when two neighbours come to visit with a strange story. Mme Martin's niece, Collette, swears Santa Claus was in her room during the night, prising up the floorboards and giving her a doll. Maigret is intrigued and starts investigating.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novella. I like the way Maigret can intuit a broader and more nefarious truth than the original premise suggests and I love the way he seems to snap his fingers and the information he needs appears. The case is tricky and the resolution surprising in that I would never have guessed at the start where it would end. I like the way Maigret thinks and his cold, hard logic and clear sightedness propel the novel forward. I was hooked from page one.

This is a short novella by an author whose mainstream novels tend to be short by modern standards. No worse for that, Simenon does not waste the reader's time by unnecessary padding; the point with Maigret is that all the background information, his wife, his apartment, his job, his colleagues, his modus operandi, are picked up by constant reading of his various cases.

A young child wakes in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to find Santa Claus in her bedroom, on the floor lifting floorboards, apparently to make his way into the apartment below. He leaves her a large soft toy and departs with a finger raised to his lips. What is going on? Has a crime been committed? Why is the child's step-mother hesitant about telling the police?

For Maigret, already bored on Christmas morning, the puzzle comes as a godsend. What Christmas present could be better for him than to solve this conundrum. Which is what he proceeds to do - thank goodness - because the tale brings as much pleasure to the reader, as its solution brings to Maigret.

Inspector Maigret wakes up on Christmas morning with his wife Madame Maigret they are visited early by two women, Madame Martin and Mademoiselle Doncoeur, who report an intruder in Madame Martin's apartment. He is dressed as Father Christmas and he wakes her little girl.
The inspector spends the day finding out who Father Christmas is and why he is so eager to be in the little girls room on Christmas morning.

With thanks to Penguin Classics for the opportunity to dip into Georges Simenon's Maigret series - my first foray and unlikely to be my last. I can well see why Penguin is republishing them, along with new translations and gorgeous cover artwork.

Since this is a short story, the plot is insubstantial. That didn’t matter to me, though, as I was overwhelmingly struck with the depiction of Maigret’s domestic life, his daily rituals and his interaction with his wife. I hope to find much more of this when I lay my hands on some of the other books in the series. I liked the dialogue very much, too, great deadpan humour there.

What a lovely Book. My Father-in-law asked what I was reading and he told me he read this many Moons ago.
So I ended up reading most of this book out loud to him. Special moments with him. It was lovely to read a book almost 70 years old. Plus No excessive violence or obscene language, it gave you a feel good factor at the end.

This lovely collection brings together three of Simenon's most enjoyable Christmas tales, newly translated, featuring Inspector Maigret and other characters from the Maigret novels
My favourite Story was set in Paris on Christmas Day. Inspector Maigret was on his the day off. Madame Maigret, hoping to bring him croissants for his breakfast in bed, she usually does on Sundays and public holidays, was disappointed to find that he had got up before she returned from the corner shop. Both Maigret and his wife had no family to visit at Christmas.
They planned to spend a quiet morning cocooned in their apartment was disrupted by the arrival of two ladies, Madame Martin and Mademoiselle Doncoeur, who lives opposite them in the apartment in the Boulevard

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley for an honest review. 5* review.

Reviews on Amazon UK and Good reads

IMG_2674I haven’t read Maigret for years but I’ve always had a soft spot for him so I jumped at the chance to review this!

It’s a collection of three stories all set in Paris at Christmas all newly translated so you’re unlikely to have read them before. I have only read the first story so far, the title story ‘A Maigret Christmas’.

In it, Maigret receives two unexpected visitors on Christmas Day, who lead him on the trail of a mysterious intruder dressed in red and white. He continues to conduct almost the entire investigation from his apartment and the apartment across the street where ‘Father Christmas’ had appeared. But despite this Simenon still manages to raise a 20th Century Parisian Christmas up around his readers.

The tale itself is the perfect length to read on a Christmas afternoon- about two hours, and the twists and turns are perfectly paced. If you’ve never read any Maigret You can still enjoy this, his character and those of the people around him are sketched in deftly but they are really there to support the mystery anyway. Hopefully it will give you a taste for more! I’m off to nibble at the next story now where I’m promised that ‘the sound of alarms over Paris send the police on a cat and mouse chase across the city’ before I finish up with ‘The Little Restaurant in Les Ternes (A Christmas Story for Grown-Ups) where a cynical woman who is moved to an unexpected act of festive charity in a nightclub – one that surprises even her…’

I love Maigret, but found this very stilted, it was supposed to be three stories but I only got the one.

Maigret seemed to just stay in his apartment, or go across the road where the 'crime' took place, everyone else did the running around.

It was OK for a short read but not great.

Ok read not long enough to get my teeth into fans of detective novels will enjoy it the relationship's I thought were a bit messy alright if you just have an half hour to spare not really my style of writing to be honest

Cleverly constructed, very more-ish and left me wanting more. I may have shed a tear or two at the end....

This was a very enjoyable escape into 1950s Paris. It was an intriguing story with some great descriptions and interesting characters

Four out of five stars for this - supposedly a set of three, but contained only one in the review edition .?

That said, it rattles along like the other translations being brought out; and it is as well done as the others. In keeping with earlier releases, it has the usual spare, crystalline description with less decoration and frippery.. you wonder who and why.. The ending was good, and had an appropriate festive treat. If you'v enjoyed the other Maigret omnibus' for kindle, this is a good short festive treat. One star deducted for the lack of the other two stories in my review copy.

A trio of classic festive adventures!

The opener, "A Maigret Christmas" is a truly delightful story. As if you can't tell by the title, it features Inspector Maigret on Christmas Day. Shockingly, this is actually my first Maigret experience. I remember there being a TV series when I was growing up but I never watched it, and if truth be told, it seemed slightly pedestrian and dull from the adverts for it. However, I am older now and appreciate the style far more. In fact, it made me positively gleeful! I enjoy my detective novels, but they can be pretty dark and heavy at times and can be fairly blunt and brutal. Maigret offered a more cultured affair. This short story is a true pleasure, delivering a wonderful blend of Christmas and crime to capture that slightly moody feel that is slipping from Christmas stories these days.

The eponymous hero only appears in that opening story, but the other two are both set in his Paris and hum with the same mood.

Which brings us to "Seven Small Crosses", the second short in this book and I believe the longest one. This is a very clever story, although I wasn't a fan of every aspect. The clever touch is the way the story is told, heavily focusing on one character's experiences of a fraught time. It's a deft piece of writing on the whole and an enjoyable trick. The only drawback for me? Phonecalls. And there are quite a few. The problem is we don't get the dialogue of the other side, instead, we get the protagonist having a slightly echoey conversation and repeating many things back to the person at the end of the line. I found it a little clunky at times, but it didn't detract enough to spoil the story. More intense than the first, and more suspenseful too, this still proved a superb Christmas tale.

And finally, we have "The Little Restaurant in Les Ternes (A Christmas Story for Grown-Ups)". I'm not sure the other two stories were for kids, but this one does have a more adult background for sure. This is the briefest of the trio, and also rather quirky. It offers a view of loneliness at Christmas, but in a way that feels warm and comfortable. Maybe it's less about loneliness and more about how easy it is to make connections. It's hard not to end this with a smile on your face, or perhaps a wry grin.

Overall, a marvellous collection of three shirt festive police stories. They are from another era, one which we can easily forget with the bright shiny nature of Christmas. A real delight to read, and well worth your time at Christmas.

I don't think I ever read any of the Maigret stories, but I am of an age that I watched seemingly hundreds of them on black and white TV. However, this reintroduction is useful as in book form I find the character of Maigret far more interesting and his gentle style more attractive. I shall now have to find some more Maigret stories to read!

My 84-year-old mother is a great crime fiction buff. When she saw I was reading A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon, she commented that it was a great pity “Mr Bean” had been given the part of the French detective in ITV's recent adaption, because “although he [Rowan Atkinson] is a very good actor, one keeps on expecting him to remove his trousers or do something equally silly in the middle of an important case.”

Mr Bean aside, the TV drama has merely brought renewed interest in Simenon's shrewd, trilby-hat wearing, pipe-smoking commissioner of the Paris 'Brigade Criminelle'. In 2013, Penguin Books started releasing new translations of his seventy-six Maigret novels, originally published between 1931 and 1972, and this collection of seasonal stories is the latest in their Classics' series.

Simenon (1903-1989) was a prolific author, his novels, novellas and autobiographical works numbering almost five hundred. He was Belgian born, the son of an accountant, starting out as a cub reporter for the Gazette de Liège, before moving to Paris in 1922 following the death of his father. However, it was during his time as a young journalist that he came to know the seedier side of his city – his familiarity with local prostitutes, criminals and notorious drinking dens prepared him well for his profession as a writer of detective fiction.

A Maigret Christmas is the title story from this newly translated book of short fiction, in which the burly detective receives an unexpected visit from two ladies on Christmas morning. Maigret and his stoical wife, Louise (referred to throughout as Madame Maigret) are a childless couple in their fifties, trying to appear festive for Noël, though actually feeling rather melancholy in their solemn apartment. He is thus quietly relieved to learn that his services are required by his neighbours following the appearance of a sinister intruder in their home. An intriguing case ensues.

The gruff but kindly Maigret was apparently based on Simenon's good friend, Chief Inspector Marcel Guillaume, a man said to be the greatest French detective of his day. Whether “Mr Bean” was quite what he had in mind for his serial protagonist, we shall never know, but his most famous fictional character would appear to be more popular than ever.