Pietr the Latvian:

I am going through a phase of reading and hearing on the radio stories about Inspector Maigret. I liked the shows on the radio, so much that I tried reading one of the books. The character was written by Georges Simenon. Inspector Maigret works in the French flying squad in Paris. I have only listened to maybe 6 plays on the radio and read two novels. There was a series on radio 4 about detectives in Europe. A lot of the writers mentioned the work of Simenon as an influence. Although I enjoyed what I had read, I didn't see why it was so highly rated. Simenon did write a lot of books Pietr the Latvian: was the first book in the series. I just finished reading it today, rather than watching the England game I am ashamed to say.  It is a really great book. I liked the play off of the solid character of Maigret and the strange Pietr. Perhaps I just liked the excessive drinking.