Georges Simenon- "Maigret At The Coroners"
Maigret is on a trip to the USA, to learn about their judicial system. In Tuscon, Arizona, his guide, FBI agent, Harry Cole has "shelved" him in a Coutroom, where a Coroner's Enquiry is in progress. Maigret soon becomes engrossed in the case, and ends up sitting though it almost to the very end. In that, he knows everything about it, except what the jury actually decides, as his flight is to leave before he can know that. - This is a nice touch by Simenon, as he underlines his probem with juries: the unclear factor brought in by havng non-professionls having the final say. The professionals may know, but this system involves them carefully leading the jury, by the technique of great care in what witneeses are called, and precisely what questions are asked of them. The jurors normally do not avail themslves of the right to ask questions of witnesses, but in the end the old Negro on the jury does, and it is a good one, assking each of the five young men when they saw Bessie Mitchell last, alive or dead. - Sometimes, the non-professional has natural ability born though experience.
Bessie Mitchell, aged seventeen, already married and divorced, a heavy drinker, who is free with her sexual favours when drunk, although she is still under the age for legl drining, is found dead, after being hit by a train. She is last seen in the company of five young Air Force personnel, aicraft mechanics.
Seargent Ward, who is married, but also Bessie's lover. He has planned to divorce, and then marry her.
Seargent Mullins, who is Ward's friend, unmarried, and fancies Bessie's favours. It turns out, that when they, on the evening before her death, when they left the Bar, and went to the musician's flat, he conived to have sex with her in the kitchen.
Bessie and the five men leave by car for Nogales, over the Mexican border, but Bessie insists on being left in the desert just outside Tuscon. She is waiting for Seargent O'Neill, who it transpires has also been having sexual liasons with her. But before he can, she notices that Sargeant Van Fleet is there in the bushes. She erupts, angry at being treated as a whore; runs, stumbles, and falls hitting her head on a rail. She is either unconscious or dead. They leave her, as Corporal Lee, who has been walking along the road, not part of their plan, but rather tagging along, has flagged down a lift. They leave her. Later she is struck by the train, in what would have a been fatal accident, unless she is already dead.
The whole scenario takes some deciphering, as all five men are clearly all lying, or being cautious with the truth; each for his own reasons. However, only O'Rourke and Van Fleet are guilty.
The novel gives Simenon the opportunit for his dissecting of American society of 1949. How all five men are from disparite areas of the USA who have ended inthe Air Force base near Tuscon. There, the problem is the shortage of women, plus the illegality of prostitution, leads them to hang around in the bars in hope of having sex with available women, like Bessie, the waitress. Where everyone meets with his peers, are the clubs based on cless and occupation. The public bars are there to meet and do what one cannot do in the polite happy society of ones peers.
Almost the entire novel is played out in the Courtroom. The different versions are excentuated by the drawings ob the blackboard. Not only are the drawing of various of the young men at odds, but so are those of the Deputy Sheriffs. Only reliable are those of the Train Company Detective and the Deputy Sheriff who is a foresnics expert. All these drawings re in the book; another nice touch.
Chief Deputy Sheriff O'Rourke, Maigret's equivalent, has with the evidence of the various witnesses, has devined the truth, and then coaxed the two young culpits into admitting the truth. It was, in the end, a tragic accident.
But the main item for dissection is American society. The way they drink vast amounts to cope, and the sheer enrmous quantities of beer imbibed are possibe due to it being very weak: "as strong as English", as the Belgium born writer coyly says!
On page 67, as Maigret walks through Tuscon, the summing up of the American society is very acute:
"Many things differ from one country to another; some things are the same the world over.
But perhaps what changes most across the borders is misery.
The misery of the poor quarters of Paris, of the little bistros around the Port d'Italie or Saint-Ouen, the filthy wretchedness of the Zone and the more decent wretchedness of Montmartre or Père-Lachaise were all familiar to him. The bottom-line misery of the piers, too, of Place Maubert or the Salvation Army.
All that misery one can understand, whose origins are known and whose scenario one can follow.
But here he guessed at the existence of a misery without tatters, cleanly, wretchedness with bathrooms, which seemed to him even harsher, more implaccable, more desperate.".
Georges Simenon spent his time in the USA very productively. He writes at the end of the novel: July 1949. It was first published in France as "Maigret chez le coroner's". This Harvest book edition was translated by Frances Keene in 1980.
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