''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant'' John Gray

Maigret plunges into the murky Parisian underworld in book twenty-nine of the new Penguin Maigret series.

''That shoeless foot looked incongruous lying on the pavement next to another foot encased in a shoe made of black kid leather. It was naked, private . . . It was Maigret who retrieved the other shoe which lay by the kerb six or seven metres away''

A series of strange phone calls leads Inspector Maigret through the Paris streets towards a man out of his depth amid a network of merciless criminals.

This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret''s Special Murder.

''His artistry is supreme'' John Banville

''A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness'' Independent