A crew's captain turns up dead, but it's the evil eye that haunts them—Inspector Maigret must navigate stone-faced sailors to solve the fishy sequence of events.
A fishing boat docks at a port in Normandy—and hours later its captain is floating in the harbor, strangled to death. When Inspector Maigret arrives, at the behest of his old school friend, he finds the Océan's crew will say nary a word about what transpired; instead, they speak only of the evil eye, a curse on the vessel they believe began even before they sailed. Pierre Le Clinche, a young wireless operator on board the ship who had markedly strained relations with the captain, is arrested for foul play. And more complications: in the captain's possession, a photograph of a faceless buxom woman, scribbled all over in red ink; the captain's handwritten will, deposited at the police station letterbox well after his death; the acrimony and fear that permeate the entire affair. In The Grand Banks Café, a haunting, riveting tale from Georges Simenon, Maigret vows to find the answer to the mystery that has left every sailor silent.