What I like so much about the Chief Superintendent Maigret books is not only the description of the crime scenes, but the fact that the crimes drive the Chief Superintendent to distraction as he mulls over the details incessantly. The more that the explanation and perpetrator of the crime eludes him, the more morose he becomes. A portion of each of these books that I have read shows him revisiting the crime scene and/or calling in the suspects again (and perhaps yet again). Then by some wonder of mental Olympics, everything finally makes sense.In this mystery, a woman who has multiple lovers is killed. One of the lovers, Florentin, happens to have been a classmate of Chief Superintendent Maigret long ago, a guy who was the class clown. He is rather "down on his luck" and had been supported by the murdered woman for some years. Rather than calling the police, he comes to Maigret's office over an hour after the murder, saying the murder occurred while he hid in a closet in her apartment. Maigret's investigators locate all the other lovers and Maigret interviews them. He also interviews the concierge of the apartment building the woman lived in, finding her difficult and uncommunicative. She says that no one left the building in the time period soon after the murder, just Florentin an hour later. As much as Maigret detests his old classmate, he senses that something is not right, and he can't charge him with the murder, even when he seems to be the likeliest suspect. A compelling read for those who like murder solutions uncovered by deep cogitation.
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