Mr Hire's Engagement

'One sensed in him neither flesh nor bone, nothing but soft, flaccid matter, so much so that his movements were hard to make out. Very red lips stood out from his orb-like face, as did the thin moustache that he curled with an iron and looked as if it had been drawn on with India ink; on his cheekbones were the symmetrical pink dots of a doll's cheeks.'

Monsieur Hire is a convicted pornographer, a peeping Tom and the immediate suspect of a brutal murder . . . that he did not commit. In this cruel love story, Simenon explores the complexity of innocent man with a compromised past.