Plot Summary of Inspector Maigret and the Burglar's Wife
"One day, Ernestine Micou, a woman who Maigret has arrested 17 years before, comes to him and tells the story of a strange adventure her husband, Alfred Jussiame, a safecracker, has had in Neuilly, where he found the dead body of a woman while committing a burglary. Maigret goes there and finds that the inhabitants of the house were a dentist, Guillaume Serre and his mother but they pretend that there was no burglary and no dead body. However, the strange thing is that Guillaume's wife is missing but they claim that she left for Holland, her native country, exactly the day Alfred pretended to have seen the body. Even stranger is the fact that Maigret realised that the window pane of the room Alfred pretended to have broken in order to get into the house is newly replaced and that his mother's husband also died in strange conditions. "
Dana Samson, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of Inspector Maigret and the Burglar's Wife
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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 - 50% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10% How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- 1960's-1970's
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 80%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, Foreign
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- theft/fraud investigation
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?
- just the right amount
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:
- Female
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- wealthy
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 2
Unusual forms of death
- poisoning
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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