It was a gripping crime novel.

Maigret is called to Delfzijl, a Dutch port town to assist a French citizen entangled in a murder, his investigation hampered by his inability to speak Dutch, while only some of the suspects speak French.

The townsfolk are stuffily provincial and would rather the crime go unsolved than an embarrassing scandal be exposed, so Maigret's relentless prodding at the truth is most unwelcome.

Most of the characters are unsympathetic in a claustrophobic small-town way and, while she doesn't come off particularly well as a character portrait, 18 year-old Beetje's desire to leave at any cost seems understandable.

The real-life residents of 1930s Delfzijl were so offended by Simenon's portrayal of their community that they threatened to sue him, ironically confirming the accuracy of his impressions of the town, which he had stayed in a few years earlier. ( )

To read Maigret (for me) is to be taken away, usually to Paris, maybe Marseilles or somewhere on the Cote d'Azur, or, in this case, to Delfzijl. Delfzijl is a bit constrictive -- it's protestant, they drink either beer or genever, you get a feeling of a place where the sun doesn't often shine and people don't often laugh. The plot of the story is OK, not great. I don't think you get to know any of the characters. The only one I came to like was the Baes. But it was nice to spend a few hours in Holland, alongside one of the canals. ( )

Kind of drove me crazy for a while, but in the end when Maigret sees Beetje in Paris and is set off in a bad mood and then goes and yells at all his detectives, the book really comes together. yes, dark and twisted. About Holland and not understanding the language and the rat wharves and the nice young girl who wants to get out of town no matter who with. ( )

Maigret Goes Dutch
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (May 2014) of a new translation* by Siân Reynolds of the French language original "Un crime en Hollande" (1931)

"Do you see? Someone wanted to provide too much evidence. To cause too much confusion. [_], or someone like him from outside, might have left half those clues, but not everything.
Therefore, there was premeditation. Therefore, a desire to escape punishment.
So we simply have to proceed by elimination."
[...]
"And that's all ... What time is the next train for France?"
Nobody said a word. They were all struck dumb with amazement, anguish, fear or horror.
- Maigret sums up the case and identifies the culprit (with some text redacted to avoid spoilers) in A Crime in Holland

A Crime in Holland was a fish-out-of-water story for Maigret who is called in an unofficial capacity when a French professor is arrested for suspicion of committing murder in the town of Delfzjil, Holland. Maigret is faced with a situation where most of the suspects don't speak French but he still solves the crime by deduction and the gradual elimination of suspects.

The conclusion did use one of the standard golden age of crime tropes where Maigret assembles all of the suspects together on the scene and recreates the crime. That was the only orthodox part of the case in which Maigret is his usual cranky self with many of the locals and the official Dutch police who become quite frustrated with the foreign interference.

See image at http://www.association-jacques-riviere-alain-fournier.com/reperage/images_scan/m...
The cover of the original French language edition of "A Crime in Holland" as published by Fayard, France 1931. Image sourced from Association Jacques Riviere Alain Fournier: Maigret.

I've now read more than a dozen of the early Maigret novellas in the past several weeks and they continue to impress with how different they are not only from each other, but also from other "Golden Age of Crime" novels of that interwar era. What is even more impressive is that the first dozen were all published in 1931 as if he wrote one every month. Perhaps it is not that surprising from an author who wrote over 500 books in his lifetime, but it still an eyeopener.

In the continuing confusion for completists, this is Maigret #7 in the recent Penguin Classics series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and short stories, but it is Maigret #8 in the previous standard Maigret listing.

Trivia and Links
* Some earlier English translations have given the title as Maigret in Holland.

See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Delzijl_Maigret_01.JPG...
There is a statue of Maigret in the town of Delfzijl, Netherlands to commemorate Maigret's appearance in A Crime in Holland. Image sourced from French Wikipedia.
See further information on the statue at https://www.trussel.com/maig/statue.htm

There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about A Crime in Holland at Maigret of the Month.

A Crime in Holland has been adapted in 3 different television versions, in English (once) and French (twice). Information and links about the various adaptations are available at French Wikipedia.

There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at Maigret, the Enduring Appeal of the Parisian Sleuth by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019. ( )

It was not a gripping crime novel. ( )