When a man's arm is fished out of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, Maigret and his colleagues are puzzled.

Maigret's attention turns to Madame Calas, a strange woman running a bistro along with her husband near the canal.

But Maigret is not satisfied and pushes further and uncovers a story, and a motivation for murder, that is far stranger than anything he has ever seen before.

Originally written in French in 1955,[1] the novel was translated into English by Eileen Ellenbogen and published by Harcourt Brace in 1968.

A BBC TV version of the book first aired on October 30, 1961 under the title A Simple Case with Rupert Davies playing Maigret.