Simenon's hero, Maigret, is a man's man. He is literally the champion of men, to the exclusion of women. Women play two parts in Simenon's world: la maman or la putain, the mother or the whore. Simenon's men are engaged in a fearsome struggle to assert themselves; the adversary is nearly always a woman. The typical Simenon novel recounts a man's attempt to escape the bad mother, the whore, who invades the masculine sanctuary and incites him invariably to crime, and to find the good mother, the perfect wife, who alone renders heroic action possible. (p. 52)

The one female character of note, who appears in several tales, and occasionally does help her husband in a minimal way is Mme Maigret. Mme Maigret, however, never extends her efforts beyond the strictly female sphere: she does go into hat shops in pursuit of clues (Madame Maigret's Friend), or attempts to...