Jules Maigret first appeared in Georges Simenon’s 1931 novel Pietr-le-Letton.
Maigret is a French police commissioner whose investigations rely less on spectacular deduction than on patience, interviews and psychological understanding. Simenon’s first Maigret novel was published in French under the title Pietr-le-Letton, often translated into English as Pietr the Latvian.
The character became one of crime fiction’s most prolific detectives. Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and 28 Maigret stories. The detective is strongly associated with Paris, although the series takes him to many locations. The first novel is sometimes dated to 1931 or discussed alongside later English translations, but 1931 is the original publication year.