It was indeed a photograph, a picture of a woman. But the face was completely hidden, scribbled all over in red ink. Someone had tried to obliterate the head, someone very angry. The pen had bitten into the paper. There were so many criss-crossed lines that not a single square millimetre had been left visible.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves

It was indeed a photograph, a picture of a woman. But the face was completely hidden, scribbled all over in red ink. Someone had tried to obliterate the head, someone very angry. The pen had bitten into the paper. There were so many criss-crossed lines that not a single square millimetre had been left visible.

On the other hand, below the head, the torso had not been touched. A pair of large breasts. A light-coloured silk dress, very tight and very low cut.

Sailors don't talk much to other men, especially not to policemen. But after Captain Fallut's body is found floating near his trawler, they all mention the Evil Eye when they speak of the Ocean's voyage.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as The Sailors' Rendezvous.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent

‘One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century…Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.’

 

— The Guardian

'I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.'

 

— William Faulkner

'The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature'

 

— André Gide

‘A supreme writer…unforgettable vividness’

 

— The Independent

'Superb... The most addictive of writers... A unique teller of tales'

 

— The Observer

‘Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.’

 

— John Gray

'A truly wonderful writer... marvellously readable - lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the workd he creates'

 

— Muriel Spark

'A novelist who entered his fictional world as it he were a part of it'

 

— Peter Ackroyd

'Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century'

 

— John Banville