Discovering a Master

I've just whipped through two amazing books by Georges Simenon, the incredibly prolific Belgian writer who created the iconic Inspector Maigret mystery series. Simenon published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, often staying in one room for two weeks while a book poured out of him in a sort of trance.

I read The Widow and The Strangers in the House, stand alone novels and they were simply masterful. Simenon, using straightforward prose, pulls you into a world that is permeated with quiet menace. This is superb writing.

In 1966, Simenon won the Grand Master Award from the MWA -- and he was under serious consideration for the Nobel Prize for Literature!

If you're in the mood for menace, and want to be transported to a vividly wrought, atmospheric world that seems somehow apart from our own, I can't recommend him too highly. I can't wait to get started on Maigret!