A judge is seen dragging a body from his house, and Maigret is the one who's seeing it. The judge claims to know nothing about whose body it is he's trying to hide. The murder victim-and the body is of someone clearly murdered-seems to be a stranger to the town. When did he arrive? Why is he there? And what was his last meal? Maigret will soon uncover family secrets and the body of another murder victim. The past directs much of the present.
In this episode of the excellent Maigret series Maigret has been transferred (demoted?) to a coastal French town. A mention of a mysterious body in a judge's house prompts hope of a case-something to occupy his mind. Bruno Cremer delivers another solid performance as the French detective. Love, sex, and betrayal drive the actions of the characters, and Maigret soon sorts through the connections. The script and the pacing stick to the book from beginning to end quite closely. As presented, Maigret's determining what happened and why is reasonable. The facts are there for him and for us. He and we see things. We are there when he questions the townspeople, the principal characters, and others (e.g., the judge's estranged wife, a secretary). From the facts Maigret forms the story of why the body of the murdered man was in the judge's house. Like a doctor who diagnoses a disease, Maigret, a crime specialist, diagnoses the causes of a horrific murder.
Simenon's Maigret novels are about more than quickly moving from setup to conclusion; rather, they evoke a sense of place with a past and provide an atmosphere of sights, sounds, and smells. This series understands this.