After watching about 30 Maigret episodes played by Bruno Cremer, this episode would be amongst the favorites. The story is situated on a beautiful French island, which is a nice counterweight for the occasionally darkish mood of this series. Inspector Pike, the visiting colleague from Scotland Yard adds subtle humor to the episode, by his appearance and rusty French. The daily, domestic scenes at the hotel which is the center of events are typically French. Typically, Maigret patiently moves within the group of possible suspects, seemingly without hurry or stress, and when the plot builds, rounds up affairs in a strong and confident manner. The plots of Simenon's Maigrets usually are not extremely surprising or complicated - it is the slow yet steadfast working towards recognizing the culprit amongst the people he meets, that gives these episodes their special mood and quality - if it's 'your thing' you will probably like most episodes (like millions of French people did for many years) - if not, you'll probably switch off after 10 minutes or so.