not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend.

Marvelously readable-lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.' -Muriel Spark 'A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.'lle -Peter Ackroyd 'Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.' -John Banville 'Gem-hard soul-probes. A unique teller of tales.' -The Observer (London) 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.' -John Gray 'A truly wonderful writer. Unforgettable vividness.' -The Independent (London) 'Superb. He makes me think of Chekhov.' -William Faulkner 'The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.' -Andre Gide 'A supreme writer.

Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.' -The Guardian 'These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.' -The Washington Post 'Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.' -People 'I love reading Simenon. So that drove me to say yes.Praise for Georges Simenon: 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. I think I’m quite good at not doing very much on screen.

He added: “I’m not claiming any of those things for myself, but I felt I could probably portray a lot of the aspects of him that did exist. Because he’s definitely not an egotist, he’s not a performer, he’s not an eccentric, he’s not a weirdo, he hasn’t really got a bad streak in him.” That it’s his ruminative, thoughtful and quite compassionate side, I suppose, which is interesting. “The thing I thought I could do was his thoughtfulness. He’s just an ordinary guy doing a slightly extraordinary job in a quite unpleasant world. “There isn’t a tremendous amount to get hold of in character terms. He hasn’t got a French accent or a limp or a lisp and he doesn’t love opera. Because the odd thing about him as a character is he’s not much of a character. “Even then I had to think about it for some time because I had to believe I could play it. But it was still there when I woke up to it again and I was re-offered the part. Then, of course, a year later you don’t know whether they’ve already found someone to play the part or not. “It was mainly because I didn’t really want to do it in the year in which they wanted to make it.

Maigret the trap