Green crime

[callmemadam]

I’m still enjoying the old (early 1960s) episodes of Maigret on Talking Pictures. Looking round for something to read, I found some old green Penguin crime books which I hadn’t read. I tackled the two shown above plus Maigret Meets a Milord. My goodness, what miserable books they are! It never stops raining and there’s mud everywhere. Maigret, far from Paris, smokes his pipe, doesn’t say much and solves the mysteries without seeming to do anything. Very different from the TV series (perhaps they chose the best stories?) and I missed Lucas (‘Lucas!’ ‘Patron?’) and Madame Maigret. The best of the three was Maigret Meets a Milord. This is set on a canal (more rain and mud) and is very atmospheric; you really do get a feel for the life of the canal.

A blogger recently mentioned Green for Danger by Christianna Brand. Sorry I can’t remember who you are! I’ve seen the film (1946) at least twice: a great cast including Alastair Sim, Trevor Howard and Megs Jenkins. I was delighted to find that I’d picked up a Penguin copy of the book sometime but not read it. This is absolutely brilliant and I really recommend it. Set in a wartime hospital with bombs falling all around just to make things worse. The staff a mixture of established medical practitioners and wartime volunteers. A harmless man dies on the operating table during a straightforward operation. Is it the anaesthetic? This is problem for anaesthetist Barney, who had a previous case die, through no fault of his. When a nurse is found stabbed after saying she knew what had happened, it’s clear the first case was murder. Only one of six people could be guilty and Inspector Cockerill knows quite quickly who the criminal is. Five of the others don’t, and a claustrophobic atmosphere develops in which they are constantly under police watch and treated like lepers by everyone else at the hospital. Tension mounts horrifyingly around an operation which Cockerill attends and the ending is a genuine surprise.

Comments

[gwendraith]

I always enjoyed the Maigret series on the telly (Rupert Davies), never read the books, though. I'm looking out for the new Maigret film but it's not supposed to be any good. Green for Danger is a great film!

[callmemadam]

I didn't watch them when they were originally shown, which is perhaps why I like them so much now. I do think Rupert Davies was the best Maigret. I wouldn't go out of your way to read any Maigret! Simenon wrote so many books that some are much better than others. I've only read a few and I don't think I'd bother reading them again.

It is a good film, isn't it?