| Plot Summary of Maigret and the Loner |
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"An apparently elderly vagrant, who turns out to be closer to 55, is shot to death in an abandoned building where he was sleeping. He was Marcel Vivien, a man who twenty years earlier had been a married cabinetmaker, with an 8-year-old daugther. He'd withdrawn all his money from the bank one day and left his family without a word, having fallen in love with a 20-year old girl, Nina Lassave. When 6 months later he found she was deceiving him, he strangled her in a fit of rage. Due to insufficient evidence, no arrests were made. The other man, Louis Mahossier, had seen him leave the scene, and knew he had killed her. Twenty years pass, with Marcel Vivien living the life of a taciturn vagrant, when Mahossier stumbles across him by accident, and kills him as he had vowed he would. From a beginning with the murder of a nameless vagrant, Maigret puts together the pieces of the puzzle in under a week, helped by an anonymous caller and the memories of various elderly people in Montmartre. "
Dana Samson, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Maigret and the Loner |
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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?
- 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%
Murder of certain profession?
- bums
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:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- unemployed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Motive of antagonist
- revenge
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
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?
- 2
Unusual forms of death
- perforation--bullets
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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