Night at the Crossroads (novel)

This article is about the 1931 novel; not to be confused with Night at the Crossroads (film).

Night at the Crossroads

First edition (publ. Fayard)
Author	Georges Simenon
Original title	(Fr.) La Nuit du Carrefour
Language	French
Series	Inspector Jules Maigret
Genre	Detective fiction
Published	1931 A. Fayard
Publication place	France
Media type	Print
Preceded by	The Yellow Dog
Followed by	Maigret in Holland

Night at the Crossroads (French: La Nuit du Carrefour) is a detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon. Published in 1931, it is one of the earliest novels to feature Detective Chief Inspector Maigret of the judicial police. The story involves Maigret's investigation of the murder of a diamond merchant at a crossroads in the Île-de-France. The novel has been translated into English three times and adapted for film and television four times.

Plot

Isaac Goldberg, a diamond merchant from Antwerp, is found shot dead in the garage of Carl Andersen, a Dane living with his sister Else at the Three Widows Crossroads near Avrainville. The body was found in the car of Andersen's neighbour, Émile Michonnet. Andersen's car was found in Michonnet's garage. Carl and Else fled the scene and were arrested in Paris. Detective Chief Inspector Maigret of the judicial police interrogates Carl who claims he did not know Goldberg, did not kill him, and does not know why Michonnet's car and the body were in his garage. He fled to Paris with his sister from panic. Maigret has insufficient evidence to hold Carl.

Maigret and Detective Lucas travel to the crossroads and find there are only four buildings in the area: the home of the Andersens; the home of Émile Michonnet and his wife; an automotive workshop; and the home of the owners of the workshop, Monsieur Oscar and his wife. Maigret interviews Else, who says that she heard nothing unusual on the night of the murder, did not know Goldberg, and it was Carl's idea to flee to Paris.

Maigret and Lucas stay at an inn in Avrainville. Madame Goldberg arrives and is shot dead as she steps out of her car. Maigret chases the gunman through the fields but loses him.

The following morning, Carl drives to Paris on business. Maigret enters the Andersen's house using a skeleton key and finds a pair of Carl's shoes that match the footprints left at the scene of Madame Goldberg's murder. He then enters Else's room. She tells him that Carl locks her in her room when he is away because she is frightened of intruders. She and Carl are from a rich family and were brought up in a castle in Denmark. They were ruined financially three years ago, and Carl insisted on moving to the crossroads because he wanted privacy.

Maigret learns that Carl did not arrive in Paris and that his car has been found abandoned near the Belgian border. The Belgian police inform Maigret that Goldberg was suspected of trafficking stolen jewellery. Maigret learns that Oscar and his wife plan to stay in Paris overnight and that Michonnet is suffering from gout and is housebound.

After arranging for police to keep a watch on Oscar and the houses at the crossroads, Maigret visits Else. He finds a pistol, barbiturates and a key to Else's door hidden in her room. Else says she was afraid Carl was going mad, so she had a spare key made for her room, and bought a revolver for protection and barbiturates to help her sleep. She drinks some beer and collapses. Suspecting poison, Maigret forces her to vomit and she recovers. He hears a gunshot and Lucas tells him that Carl has been shot in the garden of the house.

The police bring the wounded Carl to his room. He says that on his way to Paris, a man impersonating a policeman talked his way into his car and shot him. He woke up in a ditch and managed to make his way back to the crossroads where he was shot again.

Maigret sees a mechanic put a spare wheel in the back of a lorry that stopped at Oscar's workshop. Noticing that the wheel is the wrong size for the lorry, Maigret goes into the workshop and finds drugs and valuables hidden in tyres and cars. A car driven by Oscar drives by and its occupants shoot at Maigret, missing him. Maigret discovers that Michonnet and Else are missing, but they are soon found wrestling for her revolver in a dry well behind her house.

Oscar and his accomplices are arrested and brought to Carl and Else's home. Maigret questions the suspects and learns that Else is really Bertha Krull and was once involved in a bank robbery in Copenhagen. She met Carl when he helped her escape the police. A devout Christian, Carl wanted to save her soul and eventually married her. He took her to the crossroads from fear that her former accomplices would find her. Else grew tired of Carl's possessiveness and started an affair with Oscar who told her how he used his workshop to fence stolen goods. She then seduced Michonnet so he would cooperate with the gang. She knew Goldberg from her previous criminal career and offered to buy stolen jewellery from him.

Maigret alleges Oscar and Else decided to kill Goldberg and plant Michonnet's car and the body in Carl's garage to incriminate Carl. Else drugged Carl with barbiturates so he slept through the night of the murder. A gang member put on Carl's shoes and shot Madame Goldberg. The gang intended to kill Carl on his way to Paris and hide his body so the police would think he had fled to Belgium. Michonnet, realising that Else had played him for a fool, tried to poison her and shot Carl when he returned home. Madame Michonnet saw Maigret investigating Oscar's workshop, so warned Oscar by telephone.

Oscar, Else and Michonnet are jailed for their crimes. A gang member named Guido is guillotined for the murders.

Characters

The cast of characters includes:

• Detective Chief Inspector Maigret of the judicial police.
• Detective Lucas, his colleague.
• Carl Andersen and Else Andersen, a Danish couple who live a secluded life at the crossroads. The body of diamond merchant Isaac Goldberg was found in their garage.
• Monsieur Michonnet, an insurance agent, neighbour of the Andersens, and owner of the car in which the body of Goldberg was found.
• Monsieur Oscar, the owner of the service station at the crossroads.

Other titles

The novel was originally published in French as La Nuit du Carrefour by Fayard in Paris in 1931. It was the sixth novel Simenon wrote in the inspector Maigret series. It was first translated into English by Anthony Abbott and published as The Crossroads Murders by Hurst and Blackett in London in 1933. It was translated again by Robert Baldick in 1963 and published as Maigret at the Crossroads by Penguin. In 2014 Penguin published a new translation by Linda Coverdale, titled Night at the Crossroads.

In other media

The novel was filmed as La Nuit du Carrefour in 1932, directed by Jean Renoir and starring the director's brother Pierre Renoir as Inspector Maigret. It was adapted for television in 1962 as The Crooked Castle in the BBC 1960-63 series starring Rupert Davies; in 1992 as Maigret et la nuit du carrefour in the 1991-2004 French-language TV series starring Bruno Cremer; and in 2017 in the ITV series, starring Rowan Atkinson.

Bibliography

• Marnham, Patrick (1994). The Man Who Wasn't Maigret, A Portrait of Georges Simenon. Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 0-15-600059-8.
• Forshaw, Barry (2022). Simenon: the Man, the Books, the Films, a 21st Century Guide. Harpenden, UK: Oldcastle Books. ISBN 9780857305145.
• Simenon, Georges (2014). Night at the Crossroads. Translated by Coverdale, Linda. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780241684771.
• Wenger, Murielle; Trussel, Stephen (2017). Maigret's World: A Reader's Companion to Simenon's Famous Detective. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-2925-4.
• Young, Trudee (1976). Georges Simenon, a checklist of his 'Maigret' and other mystery novels and short stories in French and in English translations. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-0964-8.

External links

• Maigret at trussel.com