Maigret at the Crossroads

First edition (publ. Fayard)

Maigret 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 Inspector Maigret in the role of the chief police investigator, a character that has since become one of the best-known detectives in fiction.

The plot of the novel is driven by the murder of Isaac Goldberg, a Jewish diamond merchant, in a place outside Paris known as the Three Widows' Crossroads. The cast of characters includes:

• Carl Andersen and Else Andersen, an aristocratic Danish duo who live in a secluded house at the crossroads
• Monsieur Michonnet, an insurance agent in whose car the body of Goldberg was found
• Monsieur Oscar, the owner of the service station at the crossroads

Originally written in French, the novel was translated into English by Robert Baldick and published by Penguin in 1963. It was dramatized in film form by Jean Renoir when he shot Night at the Crossroads.