| Plot Summary of Maigret and the Man on the Bench |
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"When Louis Thouret is found stabbed to death in an alley off Boulevard Saint-Martin, his identity card shows a workplace, Kaplan et Zanin, that had gone out of business three years earlier. As far as his wife, Emilie Thouret, knew, he still worked there, and she insisted that the shoes and a tie he was wearing when he was killed "couldn't be his". It soon becomes evident that although he had a source of income, he spent most of his time sitting on a bench in the neighborhood, often with the same unknown man; a search uncovers the room he rented and used as his "den". His daughter, Monique Thouret, had a young boyfriend, Albert Jorisse, who has disappeared, and Thouret had a girlfriend, Antoinette Machère, a woman who'd worked for a while at his company, the widow of a policeman.
Finally his bench companion, Fred the Clown, is found, and admits to doing a series of daytime burglaries which Thouret had, in a sense, masterminded. His daughter, Monique, had discovered his secret, or at least that his former job had disappeared, and with her boyfriend Albert, had been extorting money from him to keep the secret from his wife, with the two of them planning to elope. Maigret eventually realizes that the murder was committed by someone connected to the boarding house, and finally Marco, the boyfriend of Mariette Gibon, the owner, is arrested. He had stolen the money from Thouret's room, and killed him to cover up the theft.
"
Dana Samson, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Maigret and the Man on the Bench |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Challenging
Time/era of story:
- 1960's-1970's
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- nearly 100%
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, Foreign
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Age:
- 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Genius (really!)
Physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- criminal
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths?
- 1
Unusual forms of death
- perforation--swords/knives
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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