Maigret and the Death of a Harbor Master // The Misty Harbour — Georges Simenon

Maigret's quest to solve a murder in a quiet village leads him to the town's most unlikely suspect.

The tidal regularity of life in a quiet village on the English Channel is abruptly broken the local harbor-master -- an when innocent, perfectly harmless soul -- is murdered. In the middle of the night someone has slipped into his room and sprinkled a fatal dose of strychnine in a bedside glass of water. Why? Who is the murderer? The man had no enemies. The mystery seems protected within one of the thick Channel fogs that frequently blanket the village. Inspector Maigret, down from Paris, is on unfamiliar ground here as he plunges into the harborside gloom, searching for killer and motive.