Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.
Maigret and the Wine Merchant is one of the books I’m currently reading. I fancied reading something shorter that the books I’ve been reading and thought this one with just 176 pages was ideal. It’s the seventy first book in the Maigret series, and was originally published in 1971. The Penguin Classics edition was first published in September 2019.
The book begins:
“You only killed her to rob her, didn’t you?”
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
Page 56:
‘Was Madame Thorel one of Oscar Chabut’s mistresses?’
‘Rita? She’s come with him and with overs. She’s a sexy little brunette who can’t do without men.’
Description from Goodreads:
‘Maigret had never been comfortable in certain circles, among the wealthy bourgeoisie where he felt clumsy and awkward … Built like a labourer, Oscar Chabut had hauled himself up into this little world through sheer hard work and, to convince himself that he was accepted, he felt the need to sleep with most of the women.’
When a wealthy wine merchant is shot in a Paris street, Maigret must investigate a long list of the ruthless businessman’s enemies before he can get to the sad truth of the affair.
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