''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant'' John Gray Maigret plunges into the murky Parisian underworld in book twenty-nine of the new Penguin Maigret series. ''That shoeless foot looked incongruous lying on the pavement next to another foot encased in a shoe made of black kid leather. It was naked, private . . . It was Maigret who retrieved the other shoe which lay by the kerb six or seven metres away'' A series of strange phone calls leads Inspector Maigret through the Paris streets towards a man out of his depth amid a network of merciless criminals. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret''s Special Murder. ''His artistry is supreme'' John Banville ''A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness'' Independent
