Book excerpt: “A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré While on holiday, Inspector Maigret is drawn into the murder of a teenage girl and subsequent disappearance of her brother and must confront an evil that is hidden in plain sight During their holidays in Sables-d’Olonne, Maigret’s wife is hospitalized with appendicitis and Maigret receives a strange note instructing him to visit a patient in another ward. To solve the mysterious case that has left a young woman dead and her brother missing, Maigret must give one of his best performances yet in a story laced with mood, class tension, and in the end, of course, justice.