“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A tragic tale of lost identity, and a mystery that only Inspector Maigret can solve “What was the woman doing here? In a stable, wearing pearl earrings, her stylish bracelet and white buckskin shoes! She must have been alive when she got there because the crime had been committed after ten in the evening. But how? And why? And no one had heard a thing! She had not screamed. The two carters had not woken up.” Inspector Maigret is standing in the pouring rain by a canal. A well-dressed woman, Mary Lampson, has been found strangled in a stable nearby. Why did her glamorous, hedonistic life come to such a brutal end here? Surely her taciturn husband Sir Walter knows—or maybe the answers lie with the crew of the barge La Providence. Praise for Georges Simenon: “One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” — The Guardian “These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.” — The Washington Post “The matchless French crime novelist.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” — People “I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.” —William Faulkner “An astute observer of human nature, writing in a spare and vivid style.” —Amor Towles “I never read contemporary fiction–with one exception: the works of Simenon.” —T.S. Eliot “A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré “One of the most important writers of our century.” —Gabriel García Márquez “A favorite writer of mine.” —Sigrid Nunez “A great writer of detail, of atmosphere.” —Leïla Slimani “Feels incredibly modern…A great writer.” —Ian Rankin “The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” —André Gide “A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” — The Independent (London) “Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” — The Observer (London) “Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.” —John Gray “A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.” —Muriel Spark “A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.” —Peter Ackroyd “Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.” —John Banville "Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor" ― Times (London) "Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it's the food that counts." ―Margaret Atwood "One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere." ― Financial Times "Gripping . . . richly rewarding . . . You'll quickly find yourself obsessing about his life as you tackle each mystery in turn." ―Stig Abell, The Sunday Times (London) Georges Simenon (1903–1989) was born in Liège, Belgium. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of more than four hundred novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. David Coward is a translator from French, whose translations include works by authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, and the Marquis de Sade. Georges Simenon   THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE Translated by David Coward 1. Lock 14 2. The Passengers on Board the Southern Cross 3. Mary Lampson’s Necklace 4. The Lover 5. The YCF Badge 6. The American Sailor’s Cap 7. The Bent Pedal 8. Ward 10 9. The Doctor 10. The Two Husbands 11. Right of Way EXTRA: Chapter 1 from The Yellow Dog ABOUT THE AUTHOR Georges Simenon was born on 12 February 1903 in Liège, Belgium, and died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life. He published seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories featuring InspectorMaigret. Simenon was very fond of boats and spent six months in 1928 navigating the rivers and canals of France. The Carter of La Providence is one of several novels written on board his boat the Ostrogoth . ‘I had my second boat built at Fécamp, the Ostrogoth . I brought it first to Paris, where I had it christened (on a whim) by the priest of Notre Dame … then Belgium, Holland, Germany.’ PENGUIN CLASSICS THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE ‘I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov’ William Faulkner ‘A truly wonderful writer … marvellously readable – lucid, simple, absolutel