Georges Simenon

George Simenon's works have regularly been adapted as television shows or movies. The character, Maigret has been portrayed by French, British, Irish, Austrian, Belgian, Russian, German and Japanese actors. One of the first was a 1932 french film called 'Night at the Crossroads'.

The best place to start is the Inspector Maigret series, the earliest of Georges Simenon's multi-book series: it opens with Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett / Pietr the Latvian (1931) and runs to 75 books across 1931–1973, ending with Maigret and Monsieur Charles (1973). Georges Simenon's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Georges Simenon has 195 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1931 and 2016. 79 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the Inspector Maigret series with 75 books — and 116 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Georges Simenon's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Inspector Maigret (1931–1973, 75 books), Inspector Maigret Short Stories/Novellas (1938, 1 book) and Inspector Maigret Short Story Collections (1945–1976, 3 books).

This guide splits Georges Simenon's 195 books into 3 named series and 116 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Inspector Maigret (75 books, 1931–1973); Inspector Maigret Short Story Collections (3 books, 1945–1976); Inspector Maigret Short Stories/Novellas (1 book, 1938).