| Plot Summary of The Death of Monsieur Gallet |
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"Émile Gallet, apparently a commercial traveler, had been found dead in a hotel room in Sancerre. But actually for 18 years, unknown to his wife, he had been bilking money from Royalists as Mr. Clément, using the subscription lists from his wife's father's Royalist newspaper, Le Soleil to find his sources. Maigret discovers that he had been to see the owner of the neighboring estate, Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire, apparently attempting to raise 20,000 francs he needed to pay off a blackmailer he didn't know the identity of, who threatened to reveal his dual existence. When Maigret locates the "blackmailer", Mr. Jacob, he turns out to be a news dealer who merely received the packages for Gallet's son's fiancée, Éléonore Boursang, who with Henri Gallet, the son, had been blackmailing him. A visit to a tax agent who had known Gallet in Indo-China leads Maigret to the discovery that Gallet and Saint-Hillaire had switched identities many years earlier, when the real Gallet, in Indo-China, had discovered that Saint-Hillaire was to be the beneficiary of a large inheritance. At the time Saint-Hillaire was impoverished, and so agreed. Since then, after discovering the truth, he had visited Gallet-Saint-Hillaire from time to time to ask for money. This time, unable to pay his debts, he'd worked out an elaborate suicide to look like murder, so that his wife could receive the 300,000 franc policy payment he'd been paying off for the past five years. "
Dana Samson, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Death of Monsieur Gallet |
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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 - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
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?
- Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues
Time/era of story:
- 1960's-1970's
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- nearly 100%
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?
- 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:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- criminal
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- almost none
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
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 form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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