A Crime in Holland

byGeorges Simenon, James Faulkner (Read by), Siân Reynolds (Translator)

Inspector Maigret

'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife . . . 'Everyone here earns his living. Everyone's more or less content. And above all, everyone keeps his instincts under control, because that's the rule here, and a necessity if people want to live in society.'

When a French professor visiting the quiet, Dutch coastal town of Delfzjil is accused of murder, Maigret is sent to investigate. The community seem happy to blame an unknown outsider, but there are people much closer to home who seem to know much more than they're letting on: Beetje, the dissatisfied daughter of a local farmer, Amy van Elst, sister-in-law of the deceased and a notorious local crook.

This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret in Holland.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

© Georges Simenon 1931 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

About Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. An intrepid traveller with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand, rather than to judge, the human condition in all its shades. His novels include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
Learn more
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781837316342
  • Length: 260 minutes
  • Price: £14.00
All editions