"He was wearing a dark suit, a beige raincoat and on his feet, which were twisted at an odd angle, he wore yellow-brown shoes, which seemed out of keeping with a day as colourless as this. Apart from his shoes he looked so ordinary that he would have passed completely unnoticed on the street or on one of the numerous cafU terraces on the boulevard. When Maigret discovers an unexpectedly flamboyant detail about an otherwise unremarkable man, the inspector...

When a corpse turns up, shot by Maigret's stolen gun, his search for the killer takes him to London to investigate one murder - and prevent another.

Maigret is called to the home of professional gambler, Felix Nahour, who has been found shot dead by his chambermaid. Maigret is shocked to recognise a photo of the man's wife who becomes the main suspect. All signs point to her guilt but Maigret suspects there might be more to this complicated affair.

In this make-believe memoir, Maigret recounts a meeting with the author himself. The account starts with the arrival of Georges Sim, as he is called here, at the Paris Police Judiciaire to soak up atmosphere for his crime novels by dogging the footsteps of Inspector Maigret. The detective is irritated by the audacious young writer who names a character after him and argues that he oversimplifies, in his fiction, the intricate duties of the police...

Inspector Maigret is followed home one evening by a man who reveals his intention to kill his wife and her lover. Maigret intervenes and speaks to the man daily but when the calls suddenly stop Maigret finds a murder on his hands.