"El inspector Maigret llega a la localidad de Concarneau para investigar el intento de asesinato de uno de los prohombres del pueblo. En mitad de las pesquisas, una serie de sucesos confusos parecen indicar que un asesino imparable trama una venganza colectiva. La única pista que parece firme es un perro canelo que nadie había visto antes y que merodea por el vecindario". (Descripción editorial).

Summary: Maigret is called in when a distinguished wine merchant is shot, followed by a murder, a disappearance and another shooting in which a common element in several instances is a yellow dog.

A well-thought of wine merchant makes a late night of it at the Admiral Hotel in the seaside village of Concarneau. Making his way home, he stops to light a cigar, and is shot, though not fatally. A yellow dog shows up nosing around the wounded man. Maigret, setting up a mobile unit, is nearby and called in by the town mayor. He stays at the Hotel and meets an interesting cast of characters. Shortly after he arrives, the doctor, who never practiced but is involved with real estate, recognizes poison on a drink being served. The next day another associate, Jean Serviere vanishes, leaving behind a car with blood-stained seats. Then the doctor has a drink with the third in this circle, Pommeret, who goes home and drops dead of poison.

Hysteria in the town is rising. The dog has been seen several times around the time of the murders as well as a giant vagabond, who becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of most. He is sought–and captured only to break free and elude re-capture. The mayor wants Maigret to do something. Yet he seems curiously inactive, baffling his assistant, who he tells:

‘You’re lucky my friend! Especially in this case, in which my method has actually been not to have one … I’ll give you some good advice: if you’re interested in getting ahead, don’t take me for a model, or invent any theories from what you see me doing.’

Pressed by the mayor to arrest somebody, he arrests the doctor, who is terrified for his own life after what happens to his two associates. While waiting for events to develop that will reveal the murderer, Maigret observes Emma waitress at the Admiral and sometime mistress to the doctor. He senses she knows more than she tells.

When another assault on a customs official occurs, suspicion centers on the vagabond, who is re-captured. But because Maigret has been watching Emma, he knows better as he reveals in a final scene in the doctor’s prison cell.

I have to admit that I was as perplexed as the mayor and the assistant with Maigret, so this was not at all predictable to me, and made Maigret all the more fascinating, particularly for the generous act on his part at the end. Simenon does all this in a short work that can be read in an evening. ( )

The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon is part of the Inspector Maigret series. It opens in the coastal town of Concarneau with the strange shooting of a local wine merchant. He had stepped into a doorway to light a cigar and was shot by way of the house’s letterbox.

The wine merchant was part of a group of local business men who met at the Admiral Hotel for drinks and cards. All too soon other members of this small group are attacked, causing panic and fear in the small town. One thing each attack has in common is the strange yellow dog who turns up at each scene. Inspector Maigret arrives to investigate and needs to sort through the rumors, hysteria and a mayor who wants someone – anyone arrested immediately.

With the setting and the characters, Simenon creates an intense, mysterious atmosphere that plays on ones anxieties. Maigret’s secret but clever unravelling of the case makes for a spellbinding ending as he fits all the pieces together. This is my second book featuring Maigret and I am enjoying learning about his intelligence and perception. ( )

The Yellow Dog was first published in 1931, when Georges Simenon (1903 – 1989) blasted out a bunch of Maigret novels. The title is kind of subtle, yes there is a blonde dog in the novel. But the phrase is moreso a euphemism for one of the characters.

This novel, like the other Maigret stories I have read, has the potential to frustrate a reader because this is not a “typical” mystery in which the reader is also on the case with the detective. We are not given all the clues and insights and backstories. Its not fair-play, its not really a “traditional detective” story. Simenon’s storytelling is a little to one side of the detective story genre.

I recommend this one for those readers who do not care for the whodunits, but who might like a novel adjacent to that genre. At 134 pages (in my edition) it is not anything a reader would struggle with. ( )

Apparently Penguin did not commission all new translations - here they are using Linda Asher's from 1987. It makes sense - it is modern enough to work but it is the first of the series I am seeing reusing a translation.

Having been temporarily seconded to Rennes, Maigret finds himself the closest person to the town of Concarneau when someone is shot. The fact that the shot man does not die does not stop the detective and his temporary helper from investigating - especially when more attempts are made at the lives of the prominent figures of the community. Meanwhile a dog seems to always appear when something bad is happening - and then disappear.

It is a small town and as in all small towns (literary ones anyway), everyone has a secret or two. Suspicion falls on pretty much everyone in the vicinity especially when people seem to start dying for real. And Maigret shows himself to be a good reader of people - there is a difference between appearance and reality and there is no good in ignoring people just because they happen to be women or servants.

It is a good early novel in the series and its setting in the countryside makes it somewhat different from the Parisian novels (but it is not the first novel not to happen in Paris - or the last). But Maigret is who you expect him to be (maybe a bit grumpier - it is raining (again) and he is away from home) and he patiently gets to the bottom of the mystery. And then he proves he is a human and not a mystery solving machine by an act which came as a surprise. ( )