Flemish House (Inspector Maigret) - Georges Simenon

A moody, rain-swept mystery from Georges Simenon that unfolds in a border town haunted by floods and deep secrets. In The Flemish House, Maigret arrives in the rainy, flood-prone town of Givet on the Belgian border to solve the case of a missing young woman. He has been hired by the wealthy Peeters family, who are suspected of being responsible, to clear their name. As he plumbs the mysteries, prejudices, and hidden dramas of this town caught between two worlds, he has to decide whether there was foul play involved in the vanishing of the young woman, or if she has simply been chased away by the oppressive air of this benighted and fraught no-man's-land. As he investigates, he finds himself becoming increasingly fascinated by Anna Peeters, the daughter of the family, who, stoic and unemotional, seems to be the linchpin in the strange compact that keeps the family together.