The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien

The Inspector Maigret books by Georges Simenon are to say the least, exquisite in their wake and poignant in their sweep. The third book in the series, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is no exception. Possessing un-envisaged twists and unpredictable turns, Inspector Maigrets strange trysts experienced within the geographies of Belgium and France- with three peculiarly intense individuals, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is an absolute ripper.

The book begins in the most non-decrepit of settings. A quaint railway station situated at the border separating Netherlands from Germany. For Gare de Neuschanz is at the northern tip of Holland, on the German border. A railway station of no importance. Neuschanz is barely a village. It isnt on any main railway line. A few trains come through mostly in the morning and evening, carrying German workers attracted by the high wages paid in Dutch factories.

A suspicious tramp carrying a battered suitcase is followed by Inspector Maigret. The shabby individual purchases a ticket to Bremen, and while waiting for the train to arrive frequents the wash room at the waiting lounge. Unbeknownst to the traveler, Inspector Maigret replaces the battered suitcase being conveyed by the tramp with an identical one stuffed with newspapers. Maigret also succeeds in booking himself a room adjacent to the one checked into by the shoddy traveler. However, Maigret is in for a rude shock when the traveler upon realizing that his suitcase has been pilfered and replaced with a fake replica, pulls out a revolver and shoots himself.

Maigrets quandary is further exacerbated when all he finds in the tramps briefcase are a pair of crumpled dirty shirts and a blood stained suit worn by repeated use. A scribbled note retrieved by Maigret takes him to Belgium and an unanticipated acquaintance with three individuals of varied character, social standing and disposition. Joseph Van Damme, Import-Export Commission Agent; Belloir, the Deputy Director of a Bank and Jef Lombard a photo engraver. What could be the connecting link between the miserable man who took his own life and three genteel, refined and sophisticated individuals?

When Maigret experiences two attempts at murder, he becomes convinced that there is someone with a murky secret who wants Maigret out of the way at any and every cost. How Maigret gets to the bottom of the riddle forms the rest of Simenons gripping tale.

Writing in a style that is crisp, matter-of-fact and bereft of convoluted references, Simenons book is a veritable treat for his readers. For example, in describing about an inherent human nature of Schadenfreude, Simenon writes, When theres a fire, onlookers cant help wanting it to last, to be a spectacular fire, and when the river is rising, newspaper readers hope for major flooding they can talk about for the next twenty years. They want something interesting, and it doesnt matter what! Or when describing the setting of the morgue where the unfortunate suicide victims body is placed More sinister precisely because of its sharp, clean lines and perspectives, the uniform white of the walls, which reflected a harsh light, and the refrigeration units as shiny as machines in a power station. The place looked like a model factory: one where the raw material was human bodies.

The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien displays both the selfless and selfish sides characterizing a fictitious tragedy. More than anything else it brings to the fore, the extraordinary prowess of a natural writer who wields his pen to produce near miraculous outcomes.

WITH NO SPOILERS COMING, THE HANGED MAN HAS AN EXCITING PLOT AND IS A GOOD STARTER, IN A SERIES THAT ENCOMPASSES SEVENTY FIVE NOVELS. CHIEF INSP. MAIGRET HAS MOST OF HIS CASES IN PARIS, LUCKY US, BUT THE AUTHOR WAS
A VERY WELL TRAVELLED MAN, SO SOME NOVELS MAY BE SET ELSEWHERE. BUT, WHAT THEY ALL SHARE IN COMMON IS THAT
MAIGRET USES THE THOUGHTS OF BOTH JUNG AND FREUD, BEING A VERY VISCERAL CHARACTER. TRY TO READ A BIT ABOUT
THE AUTHOR WHO WAS A VERY UNUSUAL MAN. AFTER WW II HE TRAVELLED FROM MAINE TO FLORIDA TO LEARN OF THE USA.
YOU MAY BEGIN HERE OR WITH PETER THE LATVIAN, THE FIRST BOOK WHICH CONTAINS A GOOD DESCRIPTION OF HOW MAIGRET
THINKS AND OPERATES. HOWEVER, THE HANGED MAN IS CONSIDERED, AS PETER THE LATVIAN, AS WITHIN HIS TEN BEST BOOKS.

I was happy to see this book back in print in English. My 1960s copy is falling apart. Simenon’s Maigret stories are not typical police novels–but they are among the best ever–and this particular one is not typical even for the Maigret stories–but it is one of the best. It has the haunting feeling of a Francois Villon poem. In this book, there comes a point where Maigret has to decide what to do when the statute of limitations is about to run on a murder. He starts counting the number of children that will be affected by his decision, and you realize why a critic famously described him as “the very bloodhound of heaven.” Maigret is who God would get if He needed a policeman to enforce as much justice as fallible human beings can stand and as much mercy as is good for them. The Maigret novels are something of an acquired taste, and if you’ve never read a Maigret before, this one might not be the easiest one to start with, but it doesn’t matter. If you are a fan of police procedurals this is one of the classics.

At this point, I’ve read the first several Penguin reissues of Inspector Maigret novels, and I must admit this one is among my favorites. Quite by chance, Maigret pursues a mystery sparked by his own whim and winds up confronting the essences of guilt and justice. My only serious complaint — and it appears to be a fault of all the Simenon novels I’ve read so far — is that Maigret seems too omniscient, and the solution of the mystery is just dropped into our lap out of the blue, rather than meaningfully teased from the narrative. Still, that shortcoming is more than compensated for by the characters, mood and scenes portrayed in the story.

This is not a real case. Rather, it’s Maigret pursuing a plethora of fishy circumstances and suspicious characters because he senses the possibility of a crime.

The plot begins with a suicide in a seedy hotel room. Maigret, who has been tailing the young man, fears he may be have driven the poor fellow to this desperate act. Maigret’s guilty feelings foreshadow a mounting sense of morbid guilt pervading the story.

There are wonderful descriptions in this book of Maigret’s ability to feign bovine stupidity or project menace, whichever is most likely to rattle his prey. I loved the description of him as resembling “a pachyderm plodding inexorably toward its goal.”

Although this is a murder mystery, it reminds me of Simenon’s psychological novels – with its moral ambiguities, emotionally charged atmosphere, and tormented characters. Maigret’s state of mind is as interesting and complicated as those of the other players. The dogged inspector searches for clues in Brussels, Germany, and France. The plethora of languages contributes to his sense of isolation and frustration, since he doesn’t always understand what’s being said.

The new Penguin edition of The Hanged Man of Saint Pholien is good news for Simenon fans. In my search for every Maigret mystery, I never found it. The book was written in 1930, at the inception of the Maigret series.

Maigret is at his cruelest and his kindest in this book. It’s a masterful piece of writing, stylistically perfect.

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