The Strangers in the House (New York Review Books Classics)

Dirty drunk unloved and unloving Hector Loursat has been a bitter recluse for eighteen long yearsever since his wife abandoned him and their newborn child to run off with another man. Once a successful lawyer Loursat now guzzles burgundy and buries himself in books taking little notice of his teenage daughter or the odd things going on in his vast and ever-more-dilapidated mansion. But one night the sound of a gunshot penetrates the padded walls of Loursats study and he is forced to investigate. What he stumbles on is a murder. Soon Loursat discovers that his daughter and her friends have been leading a dangerous secret life. He finds himself strangely drawn to this group of young people and when one of them is accused of the murder he astonishes the world by taking up the young mans defense. In The Strangers in the House Georges Simenon master chronicler of the dark side of the human heart gives us a detective story that is also a tale of an improbable redemption.