The first collection of Simenon's detection fiction, and it shows. Very interesting character sketches and a nice use of the vignetter form; but this is interesting solely to see where Simenon begins and for what would come later in his more mature work. ( )

I bought this with a pile of other Simenons from a charity shop. Since the French publisher called it a novel and gave it a publication date of 1978, I had no idea what it was until I started reading it.

It turns out, of course, to be something much more interesting: a collection of 13 of Simenon’s earliest crime stories, written for a magazine in the late twenties, a couple of years before the first Maigret. The format is very short - around 2000 words each - and the linking figure is not a policeman but a juge d’instruction, M Froget.

As in many of the later Maigret stories, the conclusions M Froget comes to are always psychologically plausible, but they rarely seem to be backed up by enough evidence to stand up in court (even in France...). We are used to fictional policemen who jump to conclusions, but it is more difficult to accept this good old convention when the person doing it is supposed to be a lawyer. Simenon also makes the typical beginner’s error of relying too much on exotic characters and situations - almost all the suspects are foreigners of one sort or another, and most at least hint at intriguing sexual eccentricities. It’s fun to notice one or two of Simenon’s later characters, locations and plots appearing in embryo: we get the con-man who extorts money from Bourbon sympathisers and sends fraudulent postcards home, for example (cf. M. Gallet, décédé), we get a barge skipper who finds a body in the lock, and we get a Dutchman from Workum and a German from Emden (both very near Delfzijl, scene of Un crime en Hollande).

Nice to have read if you’re interested in Simenon’s development, but probably not of much interest otherwise. ( )

Les 13 coupables, nouvelles figurant également dans le recueil :
* Arnold Schuttringer
* Bus
* Les « Flamands »
* Madame Smitt
* Monsieur Rodrigues
* Nicolas
* Nouchi
* Otto Müller
* Le Pacha
* Philippe
* Les Timmermans
* Waldemar Strvzeski
* Ziliouk

This is an excellent anthology of 13 of Simenon's short stories. The format is a brief story (similar to 1 minute mysteries, a series that I really enjoyed as a child) with the answer revealed at the end of the story. Don't worry, there are clear breaks before the answer is revealed (the dénouement.) in prose.) Some of the stories are tighter and more well written than others, (as is usually the case in anthologies) but a great read for the bus or waiting for a ride. Paul, Mpls, MN ( )