John Gray

''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant''

The profession he had always yearned for did not actually exist ... he imagined a cross between a doctor and a priest, a man capable of understanding another's destiny at first glance.

The very first investigation by eager young police secretary Jules Maigret leads him to a wealthy Paris family's dark secrets.

''His artistry is supreme'' John Banville

''One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories'' Guardian