Maigret and the Headless Corpse (Inspector Maigret)

When a man’s dismembered, headless corpse is found in a Paris canal, Maigret dives into a murky, depressing world of domestic intrigue to find the victim, the killer, the motive, and, perhaps, the missing head.

The discovery of a dismembered corpse in a Paris canal sets Maigret on the trail of bistro owner who may or may not have gone to the countryside, and his inscrutable, unhappy alcoholic wife who may or may not have committed the crime. The seemingly simple case proves to be anything but, as Maigret reckons with some of the most obvious yet beguiling suspects of his career. For Maigret the mystery soon turns out to be not who but why, as he struggles to understand the psychologies of victim and perpetrator alike. Solving the case will take more than the usual dogged police work, as his intuitions lead Maigret deep into the suspects’ intimate lives and personal pasts. Georges Simenon’s Maigret and the Headless Corpse is an engrossing journey into the sordid working-class underbelly of ’50s Paris and a haunting picture of the human despair behind the most brutal crimes.