Le capitaine d’un bateau de pêche a été tué. Étranglé.

Mais quand Maigret – appelé à l’aide – arrive sur place, tout le monde se tait. Ce qui se passe en mer ne regarde pas les terriens.

Une enquête difficile, au milieu de marins ivres, mutiques et volontiers bagarreurs.

Que s’est il passé sur ce bateau pour que tous les marins qui se retrouvent au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas soient aussi taiseux et agressifs ? ( )

Well done, not obvious on purpose ( )

A su regreso de una dramática campaña de pesca, el capitán de un barco pesquero de Fécamp es asesinado. ¿Qué ocurrió a bordo durante esos tres meses, en la promiscuidad exasperante de un buque en alta mar? ¿Habrá que buscar a la mujer que se esconde detrás del crimen, como tantas veces sucede?Mientras Madame Maigrethace punto, aburrida, en la playa de guijarros de Fécamp, el comisario se enfrenta al mundo huraño e impenetrable de los marineros. Y pese a la ley del silencio que parece haberse impuesto, intenta comprender.Poco a poco va surgiendo la verdad, trágica, absurda, cargada de pasiones, de sensualidad?Realmente, era mejor que Madame Maigretpermaneciera al margen de este caso.

Great, but ultimately a bit simplistic. Young seaman is engaged to pleasant gal back home. Crusty captain is also expected to marry plain lady from the home port- but ... the captain falls for a ravishing floozy who is all the ultimate in cheap feminine attraction- loud, boorish, obvious but beckoning. She uses her charms with the captain hoping for a better life and he stows her (secretly) on board the fishing boat (to be out to sea for 4 months). A boy notices the sneaking and taunts the captain and the boy is accidentally killed. The young naïve seaman has seen this and ultimately investigates the stashed away woman and guess what? He, too, is taken by the eternal feminine ... drawn irresistibly to her cheap charms. Of course he is disgusted with himself afterwards (though he is still drawn to her). Captain is killed and that is what brings Maigret in who has to figure it out rather sl0wly- and "all because of a woman" - which is pretty much the theme of the book. Ok, fine- but really I think he overdoes the cheap charms a bit... ( )

Maigret at the Docks
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (June 2014) of a new translation* by David Coward of the French language original "Au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas" (1931)

The Grand Banks Café was somewhat disappointing as it had a rather predictable motive and solution of the culprit who murders a fishing ship's captain when the boat has returned to port after three months at sea off the banks of Newfoundland, Canada. There was also a lot of tiresome moralizing and mythologizing about women and boats which reads as completely antiquated in the present day. Maigret is of course up to his usual cantankerous antics when he is called in by a friend to assist his former student who has been arrested for the crime. Anyway, this ends my survey of the first dozen Maigrets which I've read over the past several weeks.

I'm going to continue with several of Simenon's romans durs (hard novels), his nickname for his non-Maigret books, which seem to generally be more of the noir fiction genre.

See image at http://www.association-jacques-riviere-alain-fournier.com/reperage/images_scan/m...
The cover of the original French language edition of "The Grand Banks Café" as published by Fayard, France 1931. Image sourced from Association Jacques Riviere Alain Fournier: Maigret.

In the continuing confusion for completists, this is Maigret #8 in the recent Penguin Classics series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and short stories, but it is Maigret #9 in the previous standard Maigret Series listing on Library Thing.

Trivia and Links
* Some earlier English translations have given the title as Maigret Answers a Plea or The Sailors' Rendezvous.

There is some background and a plot description (spoilers obviously) provided about The Grand Banks Café at Maigret of the Month.

The Grand Banks Café has been adapted in 3 different television versions, in English (once), in Dutch (once) and French (once). Information and links about the various adaptations are available at French Wikipedia.

There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at Maigret, the Enduring Appeal of the Parisian Sleuth by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019. ( )