Maigret's Dead Man - Georges Simenon

''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