Peter the Lett (Marius Goring) a renowned international fraudster has arrived in Paris. Maigret is at the station to pick him but decides instead to follow him.
At a hotel, Peter has a rendezvous with Greek financier Nikos Strophades. There he introduces himself as Oppenheim.
Maigret is notified that the train in which Peter the Lett arrived in contains a dead body. The deceased looks so much like Peter the Lett.
Meanwhile this Oppenheim person seems ever so evasive. While investigating him Maigret gets shot. Torrance ends up getting killed in a masterly way.
This was the first Maigret novel by Simenon. Torrance death makes more sense in the series as this is the penultimate story. In the book, Torrance dies but reappears in subsequent novels.
Maybe Maigret should had just arrested Peter the Lett at the train station, rather than let him go loose. Also given that Maigret was in great pain after being shot, he really should had gone to hospital and be off duty due to illness. It just looked silly to see him persevering on.
Maigret single-handedly going after Peter/Oppenheim who kept giving him the slip verged on carelessness. Were no other policemen around to accompany Maigret?