"A quiet, unobtrusive man, Raymond Auger, has spent the entire day, 16 hours, sitting in the Café des Ministères, on the corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue des Saints-Pères. Joseph, the waiter, had gotten so upset that he'd even called Janvier, to whose sister-in-law he was married, to come and check him out. When he finally left, a few seconds later a shot rang out, and a man was found dead outside the café... but it wasn't him. Maigret starts his investigation with the café directly across the street, Chez Léon, and in fact the dead man had spent most of the day there. A little further along, Maigret finds the restaurant, À l'Escargot, where the woman who seemingly brought something to Auger in the Café des Ministères had waited and eaten. A train ticket in the pocket of the dead man, Ernest Combarieu, leads Maigret and Janvier to Juvisy, where it is a simple matter to locate the hotel Combarieu had been staying in, and the home of the Augers. Isabelle Auger is quick to admit she shot Combarieu, who she claimed was about to shoot her husband. Or was it? Her identical twin, Marthe Combarieu, who had died two years earlier, had been married to Combarieu, who claimed, when he returned from Gabon, that in fact, Isabelle was Marthe... "
Dana Samson, Resident Scholar
Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!
Review Analysis of The Most Obstinate Man in Paris
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).
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 - 60% 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?
- nearly 100%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- "All in the family" murder
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?
- none
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:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- wealthy
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
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 forms of death
- perforation--bullets
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to The Most Obstinate Man in Paris
